LiveShare: Like A Rock In A Photo Stream

Social photo sharing has exploded on mobile devices like no other. Instagram brought it to the masses on iOS while apps like LightBox and Google’s PoolParty are bringing the festivities to Android. With so many photo apps flooding the Market, it’s a mark of sheer genius that LiveShare, by Cooliris, has been able to carve its own niche. The app offers a service that’s unique and fresh, and features a groovy interface to boot. Check below for our full review of this awesome Android photography app!

Concept

LiveShare

Imagine you and your family are on a retreat together, or maybe you and your friends are out on the roadtrip of a lifetime. You’ve all got your mobile devices at hand, and you’re all snapping photos like that guy in Memento. Now imagine that you could upload each photo to a single, private repository where you’re free to review your pics, as well as everyone else’s, as they’re taken. That’s exactly what LiveShare has to offer. The app creates photo “streams” where invited users can upload in a jiffy any pictures they take for everyone else to peep at. It’s a simple, but brilliant, concept that immediately personalizes photo sharing.

To view a private stream you’ll have to be invited by one of your contacts. However, the public photo collections create an entirely new ecosystem that’s most closely related to sites like Reddit, where users submit content and comment on it in a never-ending chain. It’s a great deal of fun, and it’s entertaining to see the “threads” that appear. Overall, the concept is spot on, and offers a unique slant to photography for Android that just doesn’t exist anywhere else.

Design and Functionality

LiveShare is sporting an interface that’s every bit as good as its concept, too. Photo streams are arranged in a tiled manner, stacked on top of one another. Clicking on any stream returns an Android Gallery-esque photo viewer that was quick and responsive. Occasionally a photo would fail to load on my cellular data, but this was far and few between. To make up for it, LiveShare gives you the option to share a photo to just about every service you’ve ever heard of, including Twitter, Facebook, Google Docs, and DropBox. It’s a pleasant experience, and one that feels connected at every step of the way. Even the excellent in-app social features—the ability to thumbs-up a photo and add comments—makes the experience a fantastically personable one.

Overall Value and Experience

LiveShare has made photo sharing personal again amidst a flood of distant cloud-based applications. Being able to share pics with friends in the instant from anywhere is tremendously fun, and the running threads that exist elsewhere in the app just add more flavor. Combine that with a stellar interface and wonderful social interaction, and you’ve got a must-have photography app for the Android platform.