Photovine Google Photo Sharing App
Photovine: Google's Photo Sharing App
Photovine was a photo sharing application developed by Slide Inc., a company acquired by Google in 2010. The app was launched in August 2011 and was available exclusively for iOS devices. Despite its innovative approach to social photo sharing, Photovine was discontinued in March 2012.
Development and Launch
Photovine was developed by Slide Inc., a social technology company founded by Max Levchin. Google acquired Slide in 2010, and Photovine was one of the first products to emerge from this acquisition. The app was officially launched in August 2011 after a short private beta period.
Features
Photovine introduced a unique concept of "vines," which were collections of photos connected by a single caption. Users could start a vine by uploading a photo with a caption, and other users could contribute to the vine by adding their own photos that fit the theme. This created a dynamic and collaborative photo-sharing experience.
Social Integration
Photovine allowed users to share their photos on other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. However, it notably lacked integration with Google+, Google's own social network, which was surprising given the app's origin.
User Interface
The app featured a clean and user-friendly interface, which was a departure from Google's typical design aesthetics. It included basic photo editing tools and options to share photos directly from the app. Despite being developed by Google, the app had minimal Google branding.
Reception and Discontinuation
Photovine received favorable reviews for its innovative approach to photo sharing and its user-friendly interface. However, it struggled to gain a significant user base in a market dominated by other photo-sharing apps like Instagram and Hipstamatic.
In March 2012, Google decided to shut down Slide Inc., leading to the discontinuation of Photovine. The app was removed from the Apple App Store, and its services were terminated.
Legacy
Although Photovine was short-lived, it left an impact on the photo-sharing landscape by introducing the concept of collaborative photo collections. The idea of creating themed photo collections has since been adopted by other social media platforms and photo-sharing services.