You’re out on the town, you don’t really know the contact details of everyone you’re hanging out with but you’re all having fun taking photos. It’s a familiar scenario. What now? Share them all on Facebook? Remember, those photos don’t die. Share on Snapchat? Maybe you’re not all using an app aimed mainly at teenagers, and it doesn’t work so well in groups. Step in, the Upshot app.
Created by the same team that’s been creating the Togethera family photo sharing app, Upshot creates a pool of photos from an event and location at which several people were, but crucially there is a time limit on viewing the pictures. Think ‘Snapchat for an event’.
Here’s how it works. You create an event on Upshot and invite your friends. Everyone turns Auto-share ON. ALL the photos taken through your normal camera or Snapchat are automatically posted in a private event stream that self-destructs after 7 days. You can view, like and chat around each photo and video while it’s available. You can also sync Facebook events to get the photos from all attendees in one private place.
It’s live on iOS today and an Android app will follow in February.
The key differences with WhatsApp, SnapChat, Facebook Moments is that with Upshot you don’t take photos and then share them with your friends, but instead have something more akin to a shared camera roll. Once you turn Autoshare on, you forget about the app and start taking photos. All the photos taken from your normal camera, or saved from Snapchat, are automatically uploaded in the background. You don’t have to change your existing habits to get value from the app. Each photo stream disappears after 7 days.
There are some ideas about monetisation such as custom content (stickers, emoji and filters), maybe printed products. For now it’s a fun app looking to scale and add users.