iPhone App Review: PhotoSwap

PhotoSwap is a fun application I ran across the other night browsing iTunes for photography apps. PhotoSwap is a free application that lets you swap photos with someone. Photo social networking if you will. The idea is pretty simple and fun.

You launch the app and take a photo. You are promoted if you want to Use Photo or Retake it. When you are happy with your photo click on the Use Photo button. PhotoSwap then locates your position using the iPhones GPS and geo tags your photo. PhotoSwap will send the photo out into cyberspace to someone that has also just submitted a photo. As far as I can tell the photo you get back was taken about the same time as your photo. You can’t use previous photos you have taken.

After you receive the photo from the person you just swapped with you have a few options. You can Reply, Report or get Info. Reply will allow you to send another photo to the same person. So you can have a photo “conversation”. Report allows you to report the photo as inappropriate. And Info give you some general details about the photo’s author. You can also take another photo and send to another anonymous person if you choose. See the photo of the black tea pot below? It shows the information that is available about the person who took the photo. From that screen you can click on Show Location to can get their general location on Google Maps. The map doesn’t located them with pinpoint accuracy. Just a general location. Might be (even more) creepy if it was pin point location. Look at the map screen shot below. The black teapot image came from Japan. Now cool is that!

If you reply to someone you can send them another photo. They can then decide if they want to send you a photo. You can’t send any text unless you were to write it on paper and take a photo.

Like all super powers you can use them for good or evil. As long as you use them for good then, well, it is all good. But I can see this app being used for inappropriate photos. Let’s just say I would not let my kids send photos with it since you are never sure what you will get back.

Overall the app works just like it was intended. I found it pretty entertaining to swap photos with people I don’t know. You might get someone in the same state or half way around the world. But that is what makes it so much fun I guess.

Click any of the thumbnails for larger images.