Snapwire, the stock photo agency with a focus on mobile photography and unique business model, has launched its app on Android. Downloadable from the Google Play Store and Amazon Appstore, the Snapwire app runs natively on either smartphones or tablets that support Android 4.0 or higher. Now, pro and amateur Android photographers – whether they shoot with a smartphone or traditional camera – can sell their work to potential buyers like advertisers, creatives, and publishers, via their mobile devices
But the app is more than a basic port from the company’s iOS app. “The main difference is that Android app is adaptable for tablets and can be used in both portrait and landscape modes, while our iOS app is iPhone only and can be used only in a portrait mode,” Chad Newell, Snapwire’s CEO, tells us. “This is a significant improvement, because now users who prefer tablets can use the app with the native tablet experience. Photo viewer is also significantly different on Android: additional details were moved to the elegant slide out panel which makes users stay more focused on a photo itself and be less distracted with too many details.
The Android app also complies with Google’s Material Design visual language laid out in Android 5.0 Lollipop. “But overall, we tried to take all the awesomeness from Snapwire iOS app and bring it to the new Android app, but with its own look and feel that complies with the latest Material Design principles,” Newell says.
Through its Web and iOS platforms, Snapwire has garnered more than 100,000 users since it launched last year. With the many more users on Android, and the improvements Google and Android device makers have made to the cameras, its user base could increase.
“Android has always been in the plans for Snapwire,” Newell says. “You have to pick your battles and try your best with one platform when you’re starting out. We spent a fair amount of time with iOS to work through core bugs and flows. Android has some excellent native cameras available to mobile photographers, and since Snapwire’s new Request flow helps ensure that our buyers get the highest resolution photo on their brief, empowering users who have Snapwire for Android natively was the next priority.”
The Request flow Newell mentioned is a new feature across all Snapwire’s platforms, but it’s mainly for buyers. It allows them launch Challenges that all photographers can participate in (for example, a creative needs a particular type of photo, so he/she can initiate a challenge that gets photographers to submit a photo); conduct one-on-one requests with pro photographers; and control quality of submissions.
But the big change for all users are the social features. Similar to other social networks like Facebook and Instagram, users can “like” another user’s photo. The social features are meant to allow users to engage one another, as Snapwire isn’t interested in creating another social media platform.
“We are not aiming to be the next social platform, but since mobile photography draws such a passionate community of creatives who share a love for the medium, we began to hear our photographer users consistently want to express appreciation for photos submitted to Requests and Challenges,” Newell says. “At the same time, our users want to search for photographer friends who also might be using Snapwire, so very shorty you’ll be able to search for other users. This will map to new activity features that relate to views in future releases.”
