Remember Google’s Photovine? No? Well, that’s OK. You’re not expected to remember every single one of Google’s whims, especially not those that lived for less than a year. To refresh your memories, Photovine was a photo-sharing app that launched following Google’s acquisition of a company called Slide, and revolved around photo vines, which are not unlike tags on Instagram or Flickr.
Google’s Photovine died over a year ago, but it seems the brand is not dead. A new iPhone app called Photovine has recently emerged, and while this one doesn’t really have anything to do with Google’s old vines or Twitter’s new Vine, it brings an innovative way to view your Instagram and Facebook photos which involves music, slideshows, and an unusual interface.
Curious? Keep reading for a full hands-on with Photovine.
Photovine Unchained
Photos have been around forever, but the Instagram era brought them to the front and center of our online and social lives. Accordingly, many of today’s apps strip social networks of their “boring” text, and bring us what we really want to see: photos. Twizgrid, a visual Twitter browser I adore, is a great example, and if you haven’t tried it out yet, I highly recommend it.
Photovine, unfortunately, can access only your Facebook and Instagram photos, but it nonetheless offers a pretty unique viewing experience.
Photovine revolves around a photo wheel, where you can choose which photos you wish to view. Your options are your Instagram photos, your friends’ Instagram photos, your Facebook photos (photos you’re tagged in), your friends Facebook photos, popular photos, and all your photos, which is these four options combined.
The photos of your choosing are presented in a dynamic collage, which you can animate and move around by shaking your device. You can also view your photos individually, by tapping on the photos and sliding left and right. An icon on the top shows you which network the photo comes from. You can like and comment on photos from the app, and share them via Facebook, Twitter, email, or text message.
Up until now, Photovine is a pretty standard photo app, but this is where the fun begins. Above your main photo collage, you’ll find several additional buttons. The “play” icon activates slideshow mode, letting you set your preferred transition time, choose which music to play (if at all), and decide whether you’d like a photo-only slideshow, or one with titles and timestamps.
Slideshow mode is not the only way to combine music with your photos. The next button lets you enable background music for the app, and if you prefer to play different music for this occasion, that’s possible too. The right-most button is the refresh button, to refresh your feed — an action that can also be done by pulling the photo-collage down.
Taking, Editing & Posting Photos
Photovine is not only a browser, it’s also a great way to edit and upload photos to Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, as well as share them with your phone’s contacts. To add a photo, tap the camera button at the bottom. You can take a photo with your phone’s camera or use an existing photo from your library.
Photovine comes with a built-in photo editor powered by Aviary, which includes some automatic enhancements, 11 filters and effects, orientation and cropping options, and even a drawing tool.
Once your photo is done, give it a title and choose where you want to upload it to. For some reason, both Twitter and Contacts options have LinkedIn’s logo next to them, but don’t mind that.
Bottom Line
To me, Photovine is a strange bird. On one hand, it brings together an innovative photo browser and a photo editor/uploader, and combines them under a pretty unique interface. On the other hand, this interface, while being interesting and easy to use, is not half as nice to look at as I would have expected from such an app. To be blunt, it’s a bit on the ugly side, and reminds me of Android apps from two years ago.
That being said, Photovine is a fun way to discover and browse your photos and photo streams, and combined with the music and slideshow options, can make a great screensaver for your phone while its idle; one you can always glance it, and see something interesting. It’s ability to take, edit, and upload photos to all three major social networks can be a huge timesaver, and Aviary’s filters and tools could help you stand out from the regular Instagram stock.
Download: Photovine on the App Store (Free)
If you don’t own an iOS device there are plenty of other great ways to view your Facebook, Instagram and Flickr photos under one roof and on the Web.
Did you get a chance to try Photovine? Do you have a similar app you like better Let us know in the comments.
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