Visual Storytelling With Gramfeed, Chute & Instagram

The growth of applications like Instagram and Path support at least a couple of rather obvious observations: as people (and particularly as people carrying mobile devices), we’re interested in sharing our experiences with others. We photograph them, Tweet about them and check into them. Secondly, the increasingly robust cameras (and video capture) built into our mobile phones are – on a more daily, mundane basis – replacing our point-and-shoot cameras. After all, why wait to download a photo from your camera when you can instantly upload it and broadcast your witty observations on the matter? In order to fuel, support and enhance our mobile photo sharing behavior, applications like Instagram continue to grow and evolve, while others are launching functionality or more targeted platforms to deliver on focused but unmet needs. Case in point? The launch of Gramfeed, utilizing Instagram’s Open API, and separately, the launch of Chute.

Instagram’s Open API supports real-time interaction of photos shared through the iPhone app. With the API, developers can receive notifications when users post photos, track photos posted with a specific tag, and learn of new geo-tagged photos, among other activities. Immediately demonstrating the potential of the API is Gramfeed – described as what happens ‘when Instagram meets Twitter’. Essentially, Gramfeed affords Instagram what it lacks outside of its mobile interface – an actual website where users can visualize and interact with the photos shared among the network they follow, see the most popular photos, and access those they have personally contributed and shared. Gramfeed takes your Instagram addiction off your phone, allowing you to visualize the more holistic collection from a full screen.

Secondly, Chute – touted as ‘the simplest way to share your mobile photos’ – will help people upload and share any number of photos off their mobile – rather than having to upload individually, one at a time (which is still the more standard practice if you want to add a photo across Facebook Mobile, Instagram, and a number of other sites). Instead, Chute allows you to choose groups of photos, select a group of friends, and share the photos with them. Integration with Facebook, Twitter or Flickr allows you to easily access your existing groups. Once you upload the photos you want to share and the friends you want to share them with, friends that also have the Chute app will receive a push notification. If they don’t, they get an email with the photos embedded and attached to the email. If they have the desktop app, they can download the photos and organize them offline. Chute will launch in March 2011, on both iPhone and Android platforms.

Instagram, Gramfeed and Chute each perform different roles. Instagram allows you to share your photographed observations and experiences instantly with filters that can make the photo look downright ‘cooler’ than the original – it facilitates storytelling. Gramfeed allows you to more easily access, search and view your and your network’s photo stories. Chute appears to deliver on a more functional purpose – sharing a number of photos with a number of people, allowing you to accumulate photos and save you from the one-by-one upload, leaving how you choose to tell that story up to you. But what they all have in common is a shared role in facilitating the sharing of your photographed experiences while mobile.

We’re particularly excited to see what’s next for Instagram, both as a mobile device and via its Open API. While the simplicity and purpose of the app is – by design – easy to describe and surmise in 30 seconds, it specifically aims to be more than just a photography app. We’re curious to see its evolution, considering its role in facilitating and enhancing storytelling.

The Next Web: “Gramfeed. Instagram Meets Twitter”

ReadWriteWeb: “Chute. Get All Your Photos Off Your Phone, to Someplace Safe, Fast”