QuickAdvice: Piictu Brings A New Meaning To "Photo Sharing"
Piictu (Free) by Piictu Inc. is an app that is part photo game and part social media. It allows you to talk with others using photos.
People love taking photos. People also love social media. So why not combine the two and get something unique? That's what you get in Piictu.
First thing is first: you'll have to create an account on the piictu network. If you already have an account, just log in. Creating an account will just require your name, username, and a password. Simple stuff.
Once you are logged in, you will be on the "Pics" tab. Here, you can view your Following, Popular, and Latest. The bottom toolbar also has two other buttons: Camera and Profile.
The unique thing about Piictu is that "streams" are created whenever someone posts a picture. These streams allow other users to post replies to the original poster. In essence, everyone is talking through pictures, not words. Though you can add a description if you want.
In the Popular and Latest tabs, you can tap on a stream to view it, or you can scroll left and right to quickly glance through the pictures that people have posted in response. You can add your own photo response as well at the end of the thumbnails or by going to a stream and hitting the camera button.
Instead of replying to other streams, you can start your own as well. To do this, you just have to hit the camera button on the main view. Then you can snap a new pic or import from your Photo Library. Pictures in Piictu are in the square format, much like Instagram. Any photo can be "liked" by tapping on a heart.
Any stream that you reply to will be added to your "Following" tab. In addition, you can tap on any user's name to view their profile and give them a follow. You can view your own profile as well by tapping the "Profile" button on the main screen.
A profile view will show you the user's name, avatar, how many photos they have submitted, who follows them/who they're following, and how many streams they've started. Underneath all that information is where you can view all the photos that they've posted.
From your own profile is also where you can access the Activity Stream (think of Instagram), where you can view who has started following you or liked your photo. There is also Facebook and Twitter integration for those that like to share.
Piictu is a unique photo sharing experience, right on your iPhone. The interface is also very minimalistic, but well designed. In a sense, it looks good.
The only problem I have is that it is currently hard to find people to follow, and you can't import friends who already use the app from Twitter or Facebook. Hopefully, they can improve this in future versions.
Piictu is still worth a download. This is what photo sharing is all about - sharing, and talking with your photos. It's more powerful than words, after all.
