Image credits: Amo
Less than three weeks later, French startup Amo released ID. As suggested in the article covering this long-awaited launch, ID was his original idea for Amo. Today, the social consumer startup released his second app called Capture.
Once again, this new app will be thoroughly analyzed by social app enthusiasts and other companies working in this space. That’s because Amo was co-founded by 10 industry veterans who cut their teeth at Zenly, the location-sharing app acquired by Snap. grew to become Europe’s largest social app with 18 million daily active users, but was subsequently shut down by Snap.
Amo’s first app ID is aimed at creating (and viewing) highly personalized profile pages. It’s a visual interpretation of a social network with a sense of depth and space that isn’t limited to a 3×3 grid of photos. Capture is something else entirely.
“This is what I’ve thought about most obsessively for the past 12 years of my life. They’re all making photo apps, and I use other photo apps every day. Why can’t I make my own?” What should I do?” Amo co-founder Antoine Martin told me a few weeks ago.
“This is what I’ve thought about most obsessively for the past 12 years of my life. They’re all making photo apps, and I use other photo apps every day. Why can’t I make my own?” ?” antoine martin
Capture is a completely different photo sharing app. As the name suggests, Amo spent more time thinking about taking photos than looking at other people’s photos, so it’s not even fair to call it a photo-sharing app. It’s a fun and easy-to-understand take on your smartphone’s camera, taking advantage of your phone’s many sensors.
As soon as you open the app, your camera’s viewfinder will start capturing. There is a large shutter button in the center with some small icons next to it.
Capture is a camera app and it’s social. It’s meant to be used as a way to take a photo in a matter of seconds, without thinking, just like taking a photo with your iPhone’s default camera app.
Nothing happens when I take a photo. There is no preview screen or action button.
“Consumption is an afterthought and never lands on your feed. This is a creation-first app, and that’s really what it’s all about,” Martin said. “If I’m walking down the street and I see a Space Invader that I like, I just capture it. I’m there, I take a picture, I turn off my phone, and it’s in my pocket. See a preview I don’t spend many minutes on it.”
In the background, the photos you take with Capture are saved to your photo library and shared with your Amo friends. You don’t have to think about what to share or who to share your photos with. All photos taken with Capture are shared.
personal camera
Capture content is more than just photos. By default, when you tap the big shutter button, Capture saves two photos of him: the one shown in the viewfinder and the wide-angle photo.
The app has little buttons that are basically other photo modes. Smiley face allows you to take a frontal view, i.e. a selfie. The third button is superzoom mode, which zooms in closer and closer to take several photos.
These features allow you to add context to your photos. It can also be considered an artistic tool or an opportunity to have fun.
But when you look at a friend’s photo, you just see the photo and that’s it. Now, Capture uses accelerometers to turn static photos into animated images. Tilt your phone back and forth to see wide-angle shots, selfies, or zoomed-in photos.
Similar to ID, Amo includes a ton of haptic effects, so you can actually feel the app as it vibrates slightly in your hand as you tilt your phone back and forth. This is an imaginative interaction gesture that works very well.
One thing I noticed when we started talking about Capture was that it’s easier to explain the app to people if they can move the device in their hands, so I say, “Grab your phone.” about it.
Here’s a video that illustrates what I mean (no haptic feedback included).
Now, what about filters? Isn’t this kind of thing popular on other social apps as well? Amo does allow you to customize your camera, but the company doesn’t call it filters.
Swipe left on the main screen and you’ll see some options. There is a menu that allows you to customize the color temperature and overall feel of your photo. Choose a color and tap as many buttons as you like until you’re happy with the result. Amo does not label or describe these buttons. The important thing is to find your own style without any influence.
“There’s a button to draw a picture and a button to drop a sticker. And the goal here is to be able to create your own signature,” Martin said. Click the save button and all future photos will be captured with these customizations. “We tried to be more personal than others, to really define your own style and be able to maintain it,” he added.
And Capture is deeper than you think. There are some hidden tricks that users discover over time. For example, you can switch to a different theme by placing your palm in front of the selfie camera for a few seconds.
This allows you to save multiple camera styles without erasing previous styles. You can also move app buttons if you want them in a corner or if you want the front and back buttons to be larger.
social camera roll
At the bottom of the app, there’s a banner that tells you if your friends have shared new photos. Tapping on it will open a feed of your latest photos. You can add comments and view the location where the photo was taken.
When you swipe through these photos, it feels like you’re browsing through a camera roll shared with your friends. Perhaps this is what messaging apps like WhatsApp have succeeded in group conversations. However, Capture’s content is less polished and more mundane. It reflects what your friends actually do every day.
Amo is a startup building a galaxy of social apps. ID and Capture are his first two apps. More apps may appear in the future.
It can also be a powerful approach when it comes to user growth. Create a profile and add friends in one app, then find them in Amo’s other apps. You can see notifications from your ID and vice versa in Capture.
This is a novel approach in the social consumer field. Amo isn’t just trying different things, he’s building radically different social apps and tying them together with a unified experience that he places on your phone’s home screen – one icon at a time. doing.
Another commonality is that Amo wants to focus on real-life friends and loved ones. That also applies to Capture.
“When a user switches to consumption mode, they see a counter of the content they consume. They know that each piece of content takes up to 3 to 4 seconds,” Martin says. “So users no longer get caught up in his endless TikTok feed and risk being swallowed up by three hours’ worth of content.”
The app will automatically close when you close the last photo. That means it’s time to return to real life and look for and take some funny photos for your friends.