In the world of photo sharing and image discovery apps, I think that everybody would agree that the elephant in the room would have to be Instagram. While we sit and wait for the folks over at Instagram to get the lead out of their pants and write an application for Android devices, we are all seemingly lost to use other lesser apps to share our pictures. Or, at least that’s probably what the Instagram guys are thinking. Android has a few photo sharing applications that people can choose from and it looks like they are continuing to get better and better. The latest comes from the creative minds of streamzoo, with an app that shares the company name: streamzoo.
The Streamzoo Home Screen
I guess the major question to ask would be: what does one look for when shopping around for a photo (and/or video) sharing and discovery app? Is it the number of filters or effects? The community that’s built around the app? Ease of use? All the above? While I can’t answer that question for you, I can say that streamzoo is an excellent and worthy addition to the stable of picture sharing apps. It may not have the name recognition (yet) of an Instagram or Hipstamatic, but I kind of like how streamzoo rolls off the tongue.
To start with, streamzoo can connect to your facebook or twitter account – there is no google account integration to be found here, unfortunately – and uses that as a log in to the service. You can also link streamzoo to a tumblr account and upload images there if you like. Once logged in and linked up you’ll be presented with the obligatory “What’s Popular” screen, which is a nicely formatted grid of images other users have uploaded that have been deemed popular by those that use the service, or however it is that popularity is determined these days. Tapping on one of the images brings up a detail view of that image, where you can comment on the image, like the image, see who liked it, share it, flag it, follow any “streams” (aka, hastags) that the image references, or view the poster’s profile.
Applying filters is a snap, plus notice the previews.
Uploading either images or video is a snap (…shot…sorry, couldn’t resist) in streamzoo. From the apps home screen you simply touch the Camera icon at the bottom middle of the screen to get a menu of choices: capture a new photo/video or use an existing photo/video from your gallery. It is also no surprise that streamzoo includes a “share intent”, so it also shows up as an option on the share menu for pictures or videos. Once you’ve chosen your image to upload streamzoo gives you the opportunity to do some post processing via adding a filter, a border, some tilt shift, or other “advanced” things (such as rotation, hue, saturation, brightness, contrast or resetting everything). The filter selection is pretty good, and the nice thing is that each filter provides a small preview of what it will look like when applied to the image. The same feature applies to the border selection, which is a nice touch. You can also apply a Tilt Shift to your image, for those that might be scratching your heads at what that is, tilt shift basically provides a way for you to put the focus on a certain aspect of your image while blurring the rest. Streamzoo has a few options for tilt shift, which provides a nice range of effects you can run your image through. After selecting your filter and border and everything else, you are then able to put a caption to your image and add hashtags (streamzoo’s version of “streams”), select to also upload to twitter/facebook/tumblr and attach location data. If you are uploading video, the only difference is that you won’t be able to run any filters over the output.
The list of popular streams in streamzoo.
One nice thing about streamzoo is the community that’s built around it. Users are awarded points for uploading images and commenting on other users posts. While I don’t know what you can use those points for, there are daily, weekly and monthly leaderboards for those that like that sort of thing and want to accumulate as many points as possible. I suppose that it is one way to find people to follow, if you want to keep your feed active. You can also opt to follow streams, like #photography, #andrography or #fotodroids, which is a handy way to keep an eye out for things you’re interested in.
Streamzoo has made it about as easy as they can to find people to follow, even those from your contact lists. In the settings you will find an entry aptly titled “Find Friends”, from there streamzoo can search your addressbook, facebook or twitter accounts to find other people that you know who use the service. Of course, you can also search on a user name if you know a specific person to follow. Also in the settings is a way to turn on or off notifications, change which screen shows up on app start, edit your profile, link other accounts, or run through a “Get Started” screen that can help you find people to follow.Streamzoo has been around since February of this year, so it does have a decent sized install base already. In addition to the Android app, they of course also have an app for that “other” platform, so if you have friends that don’t have an Android phone they can get in on the fun as well. Streamzoo is easy to use and makes it simple to share what you’re doing in photos and videos, as well as being a great way to find other cool images and see what other people are doing. In this day and age of sharing, Streamzoo is an excellent offering. You have to wonder if the crew over at Instagram aren’t a little worried that some of the competition has stepped it up a notch or four, because apps like streamzoo are going to have a heck of a head start on them when they do get their Android app launched. The big question for me, though, is this: Will streamzoo stay on my phone? The answer: a definitive “YES!”
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Streamzoo Phonezoo Communications, Inc Gratis  
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