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Awesome Apps to Share Photos from Your Smartphone!

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Q. I‘ve been taking lots of photos with my new smartphone, I love having my camera with me wherever I go! But I want to share my photos with others and I don’t know the best way to do that. Can you give me some suggestions?

A. You’re right, it is fun to have your camera with you everywhere you go, but you don’t want to just keep your photos on your phone. Half the fun of taking photos is sharing them with others! Here are some ways to share your photos from your smartphone easily.

Facebook Camera App

Facebook recently introduced its free Camera app that will let you share pictures easily with your Facebook friends. You can edit your photos, add captions, tag them and upload them to Facebook all from within the app. You can upload multiple pictures to Facebook at one time and add filters to your photos.

The app also lets you see just the photos your friends have uploaded, skipping over all of their updates that don’t have photos. Click on the Me tab to see photos in which you are tagged.

Facebook Camera is free in the iTunes App Store. This app is only available on iOS devices for now.

Path

Path Social Media SitePath is a social networking site designed to let you share your photos with your closest friends and family. If your Facebook friends list has gotten a bit out of control and you don’t feel like sharing your photos with your ex-boyfriend’s ex-roommate’s ex-girlfriend, Path may be your answer.

Path is a photo journal app that lets you create albums based on events in your life. You are limited to 150 friends on Path, so you need to choose your connections carefully. The site is more intimate than Facebook and its limitations have the effect of filtering out the noise from Facebook.

You can add filters to your photos for special effects from within the app. These filters are available for an additional charge in the iOS app and free for the Android app.

The Path app is available for free for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch in the iTunes App Store and for Android devices in Google Play.

Bump

Bump is a handy and way to send pictures directly to another phone or to your computer. The free Bump app is designed to let you share photos (and contacts and apps) with your friends by bumping phones. The app works cross-platform between Android phones and iPhones.

Bump is free for iOS devices in the iTunes App Store and for Android devices in Google Play. My full review of Bump can be found here: Bump – The Fun, Fast and Free Way to Share!.

Chirp

Chirp is a brand-spanking new free app that lets you share photos (and notes and links) with others using sound waves. Chirp, not to be confused with tweet, uses an electronic birdsong to “chirp” data to others. You don’t need to register, connect with people, pair devices or add email addresses to send photos using Chirp.

This app lets you send your photos to anyone whose device can hear the sound. Chirps can be sent over a loudspeaker, the radio or a YouTube video. The app works best when you’re in a quiet place without much other sound to interfere with a Chirp.

As apps go, Chirp is especially cool. Using it makes you feel as if you’ve taken a step into the future.

Chirp Sample Image

Chirp is available for free for iOS devices in the iTunes App Store.

Pinterest

If you want to share your photos with the public, Pinterest is the hottest site around. You can share photos directly from your iPhone using the free Pinterest app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The official Pinterest app is available from Google Play for free.

Dropbox

To share image files with others easily, create a shared folder on Dropbox and invite your friends and family to join. They will have instant access to the files you add to the shared folder so they can access the photos on their computers or smartphones. You can also set up Dropbox to automatically sync your smartphone photos to your Dropbox folder to get up to an extra 3 GB of free Dropbox storage.

My full review of Dropbox can be found here: Dropbox: The Cloud + Local in Harmony

Picasa

Picasa, owned by Google, offers unlimited free storage for your photos up to 2048 x 2048 (quite large) and videos up to 15 minutes, if you have a Google+ account. (More details are available from Google.) From Picasa, you can share your photos easily on Google+.

Some Android phones allow you to set your phone to sync your photos automatically with your Picasa account. Go to Settings => Accounts & Sync => Sync Instant Upload. If your Android phone does not have that setting, you can download the free app by Colifer Labs, PicasaTool, from Google Play to upload your photos to Picasa. For the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, check out Web Albums for $2.99, which uploads your photos to Picasa and Facebook.

Instagram

This ultra-popular app recently came to Android phones right before it was purchased by Facebook. Instagram lets you add effects to your images including filters, special effects and frames. You can share your photos with other Instagram members from your phone.

Instagram is available for free for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch in the iTunes App Store and for Android devices at Google Play.

Twitter

If you want to share your photos with your Twitter followers, you can easily add your images to your tweets from the official Twitter app. When you type your tweet, click on the camera icon at the bottom of the window and add an image from your photo library or take a new picture.

Shnap!

Shnap remains one of my favorite apps for sharing photos. In Shnap you share your photos anonymously with others who can vote on your photos. You can vote on others’ photos as well with ratings such as LOL, Wow, Cool, Aww, and Huh? You can edit your images from within the app and earn points to increase your levels. My full review of Shnap is here: Shnap! An Addictive Photo Sharing Game

Email

If all else fails, you can also share your photos with others by sending the photos along with an email message from your phone. This isn’t the most elegant solution, but it works.

Bottom Line

One of the benefits of having a smartphone is being able to use the built-in camera and then sharing your photos with others. Use these apps to share your photos with your friends, family and others!

Do you take a lot of photos with your smartphone? Do you like to share photos with others? Let us know in the Comments section below!

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Comments

  1. Mike Maynard says

    Hi Carolyn,

    I use Windows Sky drive too. There is a new app for computers. You have a folder where you simply copy your pictures and they get uploaded to Skydrive. It sort of works with Windows Live writer too. You can get Skydrive for iOS too for from The Apple app store:

    http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/skydrive/id477537958?mt=8

    I wrote a blog about it last week, by a weird coincidence.

    This week on one of my Neodigital Art blogs I will be covering flash photography. I photographed a old Manor House with a dark interior and small windows yesterday. Don’t tell them I took a photo in the bed chamber, it was a bit naughty. The flash photography can fade the textiles. I was careful.

    Some days I write, some days I write really good stuff. Today, it’s good stuff. Maybe it’s because the rain has stopped and the sun’s shining?

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Mike, I had your article on Skydrive bookmarked, thanks for reminding me to go back to it. It sounds as if you had some difficulties with it. I prefer Dropbox because it is integrated with so many other apps and websites. Dropbox offers less free space initially, but it’s easy to increase the free space by various methods.

      I look forward to your Neodigital art posts tomorrow!

      I’m so glad the skies have cleared over England just in time for the big Games!

  2. Chris Simpson says

    I love taking pictures and then sharing it with my friends and the people I am socially active with. Sharing pictures through the smartphone is the easiest way to do so. Photo editor is one such app for blackberry users that helps edit the photo and then share it on various social networking sites.

  3. Bill Dorman says

    Spanking? Oh……brand spanking new……….that did get my attention however……:).

    Cool apps indeed; I have some but don’t use them like I could, but I probably need to take more pictures to do that, huh? Now that I’m YouTube proficient maybe I’ll figure out the camera next.

    Good info, thanks for sharing.

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Bill, Yes, many of the apps I’ve written about here might be familiar to people, but I’m pretty sure that no Wonder of Tech reader has ever used Chirp before. But Chirp is a very cool app.

      I think you’ll love using your camera, Bill. I expect to see more amazing of your cinematography, Bill! (*)

  4. Praveen Rajarao says

    Hi Carolyn – Path, Bump & Chirp are new to me, all i use are pinterest, twitter & FB for sharing personal as well as blog related pics and articles.

    Sounds interesting that there are so many apps around, so many new features, makes me wonder how these people can even come up with these ideas and sell them to people. Really interesting.

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Praveen, Bump is a favorite app of mine. I’ve written about it a couple of times because it’s so very functional and free! Chirp is brand new and very cool. Sending a photo over Chirp is just plain fun.

      You’re right, app developers are a clever bunch. They constantly fascinate me with their creativity!

  5. Jens P. Berget says

    Hi Carolyn,

    I didn’t know about the Facebook camera app. Thanks a lot for sharing.

    I have been using an app called Camera+ and it has worked great. The one thing I’m missing though, is a way to rezise images to fit my blog directly from my iPhone.

    I have downloaded instagram, but I haven’t signed up for it yet 🙂

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Jens, I haven’t had much luck getting photos directly from my phone onto my blog. If you figure out a way to do it effectively, that would be blog-worthy!

      The Facebook Camera app is fairly new. But I like how you can see just the photos that people are sharing without the text posts!

  6. Adrienne says

    More great news for Smartphone users. It’s sad but I still take photos with my digital camera. I know, I’m a sad sad person! lol…

    Thanks for sharing these great finds though Carolyn.

    ~Adrienne

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Adrienne, You’re not sad at all. I’m certain that most people do the same thing because most people don’t have a smartphone! But soon I will be covering how to get your photos on to your smartphone (and your iPod Touch!) so you can share them from there. 🙂

  7. Hajra says

    Personally, I take a lot of photos with my smartphone, but somehow I am not much of a share person. I don’t know why. Sometimes when it is family gathering, I like to keep it personal. Or when I am going out with friends and we end up clicking, then I keep thinking whether some would like their photos to be public or not. Also, when I do share, I keep them so private, shared with a limited number of people.

    But yes, I ain’t much of share with everyone person!

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Hajra, Yes, many people only want to share their photos with their closest friends and family members. Those are the people who Path was invented for. I do enjoy seeing photos, in fact I find myself on Pinterest often. After working with words all day it’s nice to see pictures once in a while! 🙂

  8. Mohammad Nurul Islam says

    First time I heard about Facebook Camera App. Thanks for your information. But bad news that This app is only available on iOS devices for now.

  9. Aditya says

    Hi Carolyn,

    I always carry my iPhone with me just to click some good pics,these are amazing apps and help me sharing my clicks instantly.I am a part time photographer although i m not professional yet but trying to be one.

    Till now i have my Canon EOS but i can’t upload the pictures at the same time.i have to plug it with my notebook.But thanks to these apps i can share and upload my clicks easily.i am using Dropbox till now and will surely download these apps specially BUMP found it quite interesting.

    Thanks for providing the information about these apps Carolyn. 🙂

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Aditya, Yes, that is one of the advantages of taking pictures with your smartphone instead of your camera: easy and instant sharing! In a future article I will be discussing ways to get pictures from your camera onto your smartphone!

      • Aditya says

        WOW……..!!!!
        I will love to read that article and know how can i take pictures and put them into my smartphone.Eagerly waiting for that,please write about it as soon as you can Carolyn.

  10. Bhushan says

    Hi carolyn,

    There are many of apps which are new to me these are instagram chirp bump and path also. Great list again With good explanation. You have proved yourself many times with these types of goodies. can you tell me more info about bump app?
    thanks

  11. Jasmine says

    I love taking pictures with my smartphone too. But usually, these pictures stay in my phone as I am not aware of these smart apps which allow us to share our photos oh-so-easily! Path, and Bump look especially great. Will definitely download and use them on my phone!

    • Robin Martin says

      I am a big user of Flickr.com. The pro account is only $20 for the year and I consider this a huge back up of all of my photos. In addition my family can view photos from travels or events. My mom has an AppleTV and I set it up to see my Flickr account. Other family members, cousins, aunts etc have all now created accounts, so we can share our different photos of a similar event we all attended.

      • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

        Hi Robin, I’m a big fan of Flickr as well. Many of the images on this blog are from Flickr because they have the best search function that I’ve found.

        How wonderful that your mother sees your Flickr pictures on her AppleTV. That’s a great way to use tech to share your photos!

        Thanks for stopping by and sharing your wonderful idea with us! 🙂

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Jasmine, You’re not alone. A lot of people just keep their photos on their smartphone but it’s so much fun to share them. I know I see a lot of pictures on social media sites that make me feel closer to my friends far away.

      I hope you enjoy these apps, Jasmine. You also may want to check out Chirp because it’s so much fun!

  12. Micki says

    What a great list. Thanks for this, Carolyn. I’ve been looking for some new apps to share our photos from our iPhone . I’m going to test Chirp later right away – exactly the techy nerdy kind of thing I love 🙂

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Micki, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so glad these apps were helpful for you. I know you’re going to love Chirp. Feel free to stop back by and share your experience with the app. I think you’ll have a big smile on your face when you use it! 😀

  13. BarryCrow says

    Hi Carolyn,
    Thank you for sharing your interesting article. You answered my question well. I can never be more thankful for that.
    By the way, I love your font and the background color of the textbox.

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Barry, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Thank you very much for your kind words. I’m glad you found this article helpful. You should have plenty of choices if you want to share your smartphone photos!

  14. Prakash says

    Hi Carolyn,
    Instagram what I prefer on these apps. I liked it. I used it and never used the other apps. These are really new to me.

  15. Patrick says

    Instagram is that one app I am enjoying a lot these days. It has got some really cool features wherein we can add various frames, effects and beautiful shades of colours to the pictures we click and then share them on social networking sites. This has improved the quality of pictures and the way they look.