Snap Swap is a simple, elegant photo sharing & messaging android application. Using Snap swap we can simply make friends and new connections around the world. All we have to do is to take a picture and share it in snap swap. The picture we took will be automatically sent to a random stranger across the world. He (or) she can view the picture, like it or dislike it. What more!! You can start a conversation with the stranger to share ideas or strike a conversation about the picture you shared. It serves as a replacement for “Rando – a random picture sharing applicationâ€
Even though the app looks simple with a neat interface, the concept is very unique. Every time you share a picture, you get introduced 2 new persons. You get introduced to the one to whom you share your picture and a photo of some other stranger will be shared with you. Remember it is not a social sharing app, meaning you will not be able to share your picture with your known buddies.
All the pictures shared in Snap Swap are geo-location enabled which helps us to know from which location the picture was taken and other users might know from where we have clicked our snap. Another positive feature is, there is no registration required to share your snap. You can either choose to register and share or share a snap without registration.
Unique Features of Snap Swap
- Click a snap and send it to a user across the world.
- Geo-tagging of pictures.
- Likes/Dis-likes (Thumbs up/Thumbs down) for pictures.
- User messaging with upto 140 words (twitter-like).
- Share pictures without registration
Snap Swap – Look and Feel
Snap Swap Home Screen – Which explains the concept of photo sharing across globe
The very next screen displays an alert stating we have not sent/received snaps to view. The Yellow Camera Icon at the bottom helps us to take a quick snap. Once we take a snap, the yellow camera icon is replaced by Upload icon to send a picture to a random Snap Swap User.
Once a Snap has been sent, we will automatically receive a new snap from another Snap Swap user along with the Geo-location tagged with the picture. We can give thumbs up/thumbs down and also send a message to the user whose picture has been shared. As shown below, the chat will automatically expire if there is no activity for more than 24 hours.
On the top right corner of screen is “Settings” button which navigates us to a panel as shown below. Here we can share the app with our friends, Create/Edit profile, Access help topics, Rate and send feedback for the app.
Clicking on User Profile re-directs us to page where we can see the number of likes/dislikes we have received totally for all our pics. There is a register button at the bottom where we can register to Snap Swap. It also shows us the top user percentage and where we stand amongst the other snap swap users based on likes we have received for our pics.
Click on “Register” and you will be re-directed to a small and quick registration page. Just give our email id and password to register to Snap swap.
Gallery will have the list of pictures we received and list of pictures sent to other users
Positives
- Neat and Simple Interface
- Easy registration and accessing application even without registration
- Geo-Tagging of pictures
- Analytics like number of likes and dislikes and top percentage of Users
Areas of Improvement
- Privacy – Share selfies/personal pictures at your own risk.
- No image editor. A simple basic image editing options would have been good to have.
- No Profile picture and profile editing options.
- Existing pictures in our mobile cannot be uploaded and only pictures that are taken through Snap Swap can be uploaded and sent.
- No Facebook/Twitter integration. Yes, we understand the concept of sharing a pic with a stranger, but when we can share a pic with strangers then why not with our buddies?
- No categorization of pictures. It would have been nice to have some categorization for each snap uploaded and user must be allowed to choose the categories of snaps they receive.
Verdict
We would rate this app 2/5 based on the features, positives and negatives. Though the concept is unique, there are lots of areas where improvements are required to make this app more appealing.