It’s funny how common it is nowadays to share everything online. Whether we’re on vacation, having good times with friends, watching the kids grow up, showing off a finished project, or whatever, it’s more likely than not it will be shared on a free photo app or one social media platform or another. I mean, really, five years ago, did you really take a photo of every meal and Instagram it before you started eating? I sure didn’t.
Sometimes, though, photos alone are not enough. Sure, you can send video. The problem with that is that you can only share 6-30 seconds. Otherwise the file ends up too big to even send via text message or email. What if there was a way to find a happy medium? There’s a new iOS app that lets you add sound or narration with your photo and then share it. It’s called SocialCafe.
SocialCafe – Free Photo App To Add Audio & Share (iOS only)
SocialCafe lets you take any photo and attach up to five minutes of audio to it. After saving it to your DropBox account, you can share it directly from the app to Facebook or Twitter. The app is optimized for iPhone 5 but, since I don’t have one, I had to do my testing on my iPad Air (in case you’re wondering why there’s a black border on the screenshots).
New SocialCafe picture w/audio: Small World 50th http://t.co/X9YEdDbiA3 pic.twitter.com/e7Bs2BRC69
— TerriAnn van Gosliga (@cookiesANDclogs) August 28, 2014
Or, you can download the html file in your DropBox, click on that, and then send the link via email or text message. There should have been an option to send it directly to email but I only saw Facebook and Twitter on my screen. Either way, you will need to follow the link to “hear” the photo. It would have been quicker if a direct (shortened) link was generated and then that could be shared instead.
Ease of Use
Taking or choosing an existing photo is extremely easy and fast. From there you can add your audio, a title (30 characters), and a description (125 characters) if you so choose. Tap the icon to save it to your DropBox. Tap the arrow to share it.
You can check out the interactive walkthrough here:
I did run into a couple issues with the app. If you save a photo with audio to your DropBox and then decide to record a new audio, it will overwrite your saved file, even if you do the recording another day. I assumed a new file would be made as the folders are organized by date. It was not, as my old audio was partially overwritten. Instead of hearing Speckles whine for her food, you hear me going, “Bla-la-lump-la, blah.” Not what I was going for. So, for that one, I just had to start over.
Though you should be able to share the file on Facebook, I was not able to. I would get an error that I had to connect my Facebook account in the settings but the only option in settings is to enable reporting. For Twitter, I just had to make sure I was signed into my Twitter account first. Then it worked. With Facebook, that didn’t do anything.
SocialCafe is a free app to download and to use. I think it would be great when at public events or to capture moments with the family and really make your viewers feel like they’re there with you. The app runs smoothly and didn’t hang at all or slow down my system while using it. However, it’d be nicer to embed the file instead of having to click out to the SocialCafe site to see it. Maybe those can be things to be implemented later. If you’re feeling the limitation of photo but don’t need the visuals of video, then you might want to give SocialCafe a try.
31 comments
I have never heard of this app, but it sounds wonderful!
There’s so much fun you can have with the addition of audio!
SocialCafe seems like a really cool app. I love that I can audio to my photos.
SocialCafe looks awesome. I’ve never thought of adding audio to pictures before, but I think that could be a really cool thing.
This is super cool! I’ve already got tons of ideas for what I can do with SocialCafe.
SocialCafe looks awesome! I’m already thinking of what I can do with this.
I love the idea of that! I’m not always thrilled about having to appear in videos, so being more of a narrator really appeals to me. I’ll have to check that out.
That is so cool! I will have to try this!
this is SO cool. what a neat idea to play around with!
What a fun thing to do for Holiday pictures with the little ones that you send to grandma and grandpa. They would love to get a special message from the grand-kids embedded right in the image.
That sounds like fun to add audio to the photos when you share them. So cool. What a fun app.
This looks like a fun app. I love the idea of being able to add audio to a picture.
Such a cool app! I could see sending pics to the grandparents and letting the kids add audio to make it extra special!
I just got an iPhone so I’m finally getting to try out a bunch of ios only apps! I can’t wait to try this one. It sounds really neat.
I think this is such a neat idea. I am sorry to hear it doesn’t work as well as expected but hopefully they will fix the issues. It sounds like it is a really neat app.
That’s SO cool. It’s things like this that make me wish I had a smartphone. I just can’t justify the added expense right now.
This looks like a great way to really bring photos to life without any fancy training or editing. I love that all these features are through an app.
What a fun app!! I love how creative you can be with it!
Haven’t heard about this app. I don’t do much with audio but would if it was easier like this makes it!
I think this is a neat idea. I bet there is a lot that I could do with this app! Love it.
That is really cool, I’d use this for sure. I love to send videos of the kids to my hubby at work, yet the files are always too large. Thanks for this introduction!
This looks like a really fun app! Thanks for sharing it!
This looks like a great app to have. I love how clear your pictures look and the audio feature is a definite plus.
Could be a really cool way to send a unique greeting card to someone! Interesting idea!
This would have been great for when we went on vacation. I can see myself using it to share our experience with family.
What a great way to keep photo’s organized. Plus a nice way to share them with family and friends.
This photo app sounds great. I’ll have to try it out.
Great review! I need a new photo app and this sounds great. May have to try it myself!
What a great idea, I think it would be fun! That’s for sure!
I’ve been meaning to try this out, looks good.
Thanks for the thorough review, the audio feature is really cool! It’s amazing how much we benefit from the modern technology and apps.
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