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Shnap! An Addictive Photo Sharing Game

The estimated reading time for this post is 4 minutes

Shnap! is no longer available in the iTunes App Store.

Warning: This game is so addictive that I have banned my daughter from playing it until after she finishes her final exams. Luckily, that event occurs tomorrow after which I have no doubt she will be thoroughly engrossed in Shnap.

If you have been using the Dynamic Light app, and I know many of you have, then you probably want to share your pictures with others and/or show off your artistic talents (see, Dynamic Light: Enhance Your View of the World!).

Shnap! is a free app in the iTunes App Store that will let you share those photos, and any others you wish to share, in a fun, social, artistic, competitive and addictive game.

ShnapShnap is not only difficult to quit, it’s difficult to describe. Shnap is part Flickr, part Facebook, part Farmville, and part Dynamic Light. First, Shnap is a photo sharing site. You can sign up to be a Shnap member or sign up with your Facebook account information. Members upload their digital pictures to share with others. You see the pictures one at a time and rate them according to the following scale:

  • Wow
  • Cool
  • Meh
  • LOL
  • WTF

Wow is the best and Meh is the worst. Meh means you don’t care about the picture. I won’t explain what WTF means, but let’s just say that the person who rated my cathedral picture a WTF was being very inappropriate!

I was fortunate to discover Dynamic Light at about the same time I discovered Shnap. I uploaded to Shnap some unaltered shots as well as images I altered with Dynamic Light. In every case, Shnappers preferred my images that were altered with Dynamic Light.

I started to post to Shnap only the images I altered with Dynamic Light. Here are some examples:

Dubai Original Shnap
Original
Dubai Altered Shnap
Altered

Here is a pretty boring picture that I wouldn’t have posted on Shnap, but the altered picture was interesting so I posted it. I altered the picture using the Old Photo effect in Dynamic Light:

Pompeii Original Shnap
Original
Pompeii Altered Shnap
Altered

You can see the differences and why I thought the altered images would be more successful on Shnap.

The game element of Shnap comes in as you rate the pictures. You get Shnap bucks for every picture you rate, no matter what the rating.  You use Shnap Bucks to post your own pictures on Shnap! If you want to post a picture, it will cost you 10 Shnap Bucks. So you need to rate 10 pictures for every one picture you upload to Shnap. You can’t go crazy rating Shnap pictures though. Shnap cuts you off from rating others’ pics after a while.

This system requires you either to come back often or to purchase extra Shnap bucks if you want to post a lot of photos. 5,000 Shnap bucks (enough to post 500 pictures) is $0.99. 20,000 Shnap bucks (enough to post 2,000 pictures) is $2.99. I haven’t purchased any Shnap bucks, I just visit the site frequently to: i) feed my Shnap habit and ii) earn more Shnap bucks so I can post more pictures.

When you post images and people rate them you earn XP (experience points), unless they rate it a Meh, in which case you don’t earn anything. As you earn XP you level up which unlocks Shnap tools (Farmville anyone?). The Shnap tools allow you to alter images using special effects, like Dynamic Light. I prefer the Dynamic Light effects to the Shnap effects, but here is an example of the before and after effects of a photo altered with the Shnap tools:

Scotland Original Shnap
Original
Scotland Altered
Altered

The best thing to do in the beginning is not to worry about the XP or Shnap Bucks but just to enjoy rating others’ pictures and posting your own. I have posted 17 pictures on Shnap and have enough Shnap Bucks to post 21 more. If you enjoy the game, you will earn Shnap Bucks and XP without really trying. If you don’t enjoy the game, well, then you won’t care.

As with Facebook, you can also “friend” other members and post on their walls. I’m not sure what the purpose of friending is on Shnap because the people who post the pictures are anonymous until you rate them and then the name of the poster and the title of the picture are revealed. The wall feature is very cool though when people post on your wall complimenting your shots.

Here is a screenshot of the Shnap home page showing you all of the ways you can use Shnap.

Shnap

Unfortunately, there is no website support for Shnap, you can only access it through the iOS app (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch). If you go to shnap.com, you will see a slide show of photos currently being rated on Shnap, like this one:

Shnap

Bottom Line

Get this app.

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Have you checked out Shnap? Do you like sharing your photos with others? Have you been having fun playing with Dynamic Light and want to share your artistry with others? Do you have any guesses as to where my pictures were taken? Let us know in the Comments Section below!

 

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Comments

  1. Mouh says

    Thanks for sharing this tool with us. I love trying new tools and applications. It is kinda my passion. This tool does sound highly addictive :D.

    WOW for this post! 😉

    The best of luck for your daughter!

    Mouh
    🙂

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Mouh, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m glad you enjoyed the post and rate it a Wow. 😀 You should definitely check out this app because it’s free. Just make sure you download it when you you have a bit of time to spare, to have the time to enjoy it properly.

      Thank you for your wishes for my daughter. My ban plan didn’t work. As I write this she has commandeered my iPad and is voting on pictures from my Shnap account. Time for her to study!

      Thanks so much for your visit and kind comment!

  2. Jens P. Berget says

    Hey Carolyn,

    Shnap sounds like an awesome game. After installing Angry Birds, I’m very sceptical of installing any new games on my iPhone. I usually don’t play games, but I don’t know how many hours I have been playing Angry Birds. It’s so easy to start, and so easy to play, and I figured that it would be easy to quit as well… but I was wrong 🙂

    Thanks a lot for sharing information about Shnap

    Jens

  3. Roseblawesome says

    This is the MOST addicting app I think I have ever played. It is SO much fun and it’s amazing how many awesome pictures you can find! Thanks for writing a blog post on this amazing app it is definitely worth sharing and I am going to stop playing with it and get back to studying 😀

  5. Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

    Note to readers: the developers of Shnap have informed me that the YouTube video was not made by them but by an early beta tester (someone who tests software before it is released). I have corrected the post to reflect the change.

  6. Adrienne says

    Now that’s a pretty cool little game although I won’t be trying this one out anytime in the near future. Girl, I just don’t have time… But I do love pictures and I do love looking at really awesome ones so I could get stuck doing that if I’m not careful.

    You come up with the coolest stuff young lady… Does your daughter help you find these or are you just hopping around all day trying to find cool things? Now that would be a fun way to spend the day!

    Thank Carolyn, you share the neatest things over here.

    Adrienne

  7. Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

    Hi Adrienne, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! You are such a busy lady, I imagine you don’t have time for many games, even Angry Birds!

    I have fun finding cool tech, especially apps (picture a kid in a toy store). I get suggestions for apps and other tech to review from a lot of Wonder of Tech readers, including my daughter. I found Shnap, but she told me about Zedge, the free ringtone app/website that I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post.

    Thanks for your post, kind comment and tweet!

  8. Mike Maynard says

    I like the pictures especially the one of the building, it looks a little like sepia. You could probably use that app to make photographs look ‘old’. I printed on picture, put it on my notice board for 3 months and then scanned it! I just click sepia or black and white now. When I take landscapes I try to get something in the foreground to give it some depth. I like unusual angles too, high off a bridge or a aqueduct! I get vertigo but the pictures look good!

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Mike, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! I’m glad you like the pictures. I like the Old Photo effect in Dynamic Light. That effect might be fun for portraits as well.

      That is very interesting that you use object in the foreground and angles to make your photos better. I’m learning a lot about photography. Just be careful on those bridges and aqueducts!

      Thanks so much for your visit and your instructive comment!

  9. Kuan Yong says

    I’m one of the creators behind Shnap and I’d just like to say hello to everyone here and thank all of you for checking out the app. If you have any suggestions for how we can make the app more fun and useful, please don’t hesitate to let me know!

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Kuan, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Thank you for your great app and for making it free. My daughter and I have greatly enjoyed Shnap and I’m sure other Wonder of Tech readers will be hooked soon.

      Thanks for your visit. It means a lot to readers when developers visit this blog and interact with comments. Congratulations on an app well done.