Share Batches Of Photos Quickly With This New Photo Sharing App
Batch (Free) by Batch, LLC is deemed as a simple way to share an album, or just a batch of photos to your friends and family directly from your phone.
The first thing that Batch will ask is for a Facebook login. Unfortunately, this is the only way to use Batch – those that don’t have a Facebook account are unable to use the app. Facebook integration is used to find your friends that are also using Batch.
Once you get in, the first thing you may want to try is to upload a batch of photos that are already on your device. Just select the album that you want to pull photos from, and select whichever ones you want (having people in them is preferred). When the photos are selected and you want to create the new batch, give it a name. Following that, you will be prompted to tag the people in the set of photos; the tagging is done in batches, so you cannot tag individual photos.
As the uploading begins, you will see a spinner on each photo – this is the progress of the upload. For the most part, uploading to Batch is reasonably quick, but it also depends on how many photos you are uploading in a batch. When your first batch is done, you can control the privacy settings on that batch. It can be either private, available to all other friends on Batch, or it can go on Facebook or Twitter.
After you get your first batch up, it’s best to explore the rest of the app. There are five buttons in the bottom menu bar: Batches, Feed, Camera, Photos, and Me.
In the Batches, you will be able to see your friend’s activity – any batches that they upload will show up here. The Feed is also similar, though it will show all the activity that your friends are up to, including commenting on others and uploading their own batches.
The Camera button allows you to start snapping new photos, but there is a great little option that sets it apart from other apps – you can shoot a new batch, or even shoot into a previously made batch. Images that you snap in Batch will be immediately uploaded into the batch you specified, so it’s all happening in real-time.
The Photos tab allows you to create a new batch from photos that are already on your device, and you can view the sets that you’ve already created.
In the Me tab, you can view any notifications (new friends, comments on your photos, and likes), photos that you are tagged in by others, and your friends list. Viewing someone else’s profile will allow you to see photos that they are tagged in and any batches they have uploaded.
Overall, I found Batch to be a pleasure to use. The UI is beautiful, and it’s fast and just elegant. However, like all other social networks, you will need your friends on the service to get the most of it. So far, I only have one person as a “friend” on Batch – the biggest task will be getting others to use the service.
However, there’s a lot of potential here, and it definitely makes it easy to tag a bunch of people for a large group of photos at once. I am also in love with the interface.
I’ll be keeping Batch around just to see how it grows, and I suggest that you do too, seeing as it is a free download.
