JamSnap

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Jamsnap showcase - Abigail

Abigail is a talented young jamsnapper. Since the time of her first jamsnap, she caught our attention as she really *got* JamSnap.

Here's the first one she ever did!

The voices are particularly good in this one.

The song was unexpected, but just so right!

This one is predictable, but still really fun.

Frozen fever! It was everywhere!

This one is so innocuous, as opposed to the "FaceOff" episode of Breaking Bad.

The voice cracks me up!

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Photographs and Storytelling

The move from Analog to Digital

Being a millennial, I got to experience the way of life with analog technology while growing up before digital technology completely took over our lives. Cassette tapes were one of my favorite purchases as a kid. I was allowed one cassette purchase every month. The wait meant that every cassette I owned was treasured. I got access to only about 12 albums a year and I really knew all those songs inside out. Then the internet came and I straight away put it to good use, obtaining songs through the likes of Napster, Kazaa, LimeWire. As speeds increased, song downloads became album downloads, which in turn became discography downloads, to now essentially being able to listen to almost any song by any artist over Spotify or rdio. The one thing that has remained constant is the amount of time I can devote to listening to music. This has just meant that I treasure each song much lesser these days. Of course, there are still special life experiences that get associated to certain songs, but the essential experience of experiencing a musical track has become a lot more diluted. 

Storytelling then

One of the other experiences I miss a lot is that of having friends and family over after a trip, and going through all our photos, while telling and reliving all the stories that happened during the trip. Instagram makes your photo looks pretty but it doesn't quite let you tell the story of why that moment was special. You can of course title the photo, but a title can't always tell a story. Here, I'd like to draw a distinction between photos that are used to capture a moment in your life as opposed to photographs taken by photographers and hobbyists that are supposed to represent an interesting scene (kenrockwell.com is a great resource for the latter).

Storytelling now

Though the number of photographs taken has exploded now that we don't have to buy and develop film, there had been few successful attempts to rekindle the storytelling aspect of taking photographs until recently. Flipagram became hugely successful on the App Store, allowing people to stitch their photos and videos into one video collage. Shadow Puppet is another nice stab at the problem, as is Tapestry. All these apps allow you to make really nice stories from existing content that you have.

At JamSnap, we are trying to solve this problem at a different scale. Instead of making these stories at the end of a trip or an event, at which point you inevitably only remember only aggregate experiences, we want to empower people to capture mini-stories right around the moment it happened.

Remembering how you sounded and what you felt right after your first live performance, or how tired but accomplished you felt at the top of your 12 mile hike. Try JamSnap the next time you want to capture a moment in your life and let us know how it went!

What are the experiences you miss the most from the analog era? How do you like the current storytelling options available to you? How do you think we will do this in the future? Let us know in the comments.

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How to Take a Great JamSnap

Having trouble getting started with JamSnap? Here are a few helpful tips for creating great 'snaps:

1. Capture appealing images with JamSnap’s camera or import previously edited images from your photo gallery - crop, straighten, and filter to your heart's content then add sound in JamSnap.

2. Get creative with sound! We want to hear what you're looking at, what you think, descriptions of what you see, your favorite music, animal noises ... you name it!

3. JamSnap is more fun with others! Help new friends discover your JamSnaps! Use hashtags, make comments, and share your creations on Facebook and Twitter.

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The Journey Begins!

We're excited to announce that JamSnap no longer in private beta and has officially launched on the App Store! 

Download it now

JamSnap is the best new way to capture moments in your life. Snap a photo, add sounds, and share your JamSnap with the people close to you. It’s easy! Snap. Jam. Share.

Main Features

Snap unlimited photos and capture sounds for free

Tap and hold to tag your photos with sounds

Share instantly via Email, SMS, Twitter, and Facebook

Find, follow, and interact with your friends

Get the most out of JamSnap! Grant the app permission to access your microphone so you can capture sounds. Have questions, problems, or feedback? Reach out to us at [email protected]

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Introducing JamSnap - the video

We've been working hard to bring you a video that can explain what we are trying to do here at JamSnap. Here it is! Please let us know what you think!

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Android version

The Android version of JamSnap is under development. We are hoping to release it in the next few months. Let us know if you want the Android version so that you can JamSnap!

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Meet Mayank, founder of JamSnap

Meet Mayank Sanganeria, the founder of JamSnap!

What's your background? How long have you been developing iOS Apps?

I graduated in the summer of 2013 from Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), where I studied Music Technology (it's the coolest program out there - I strongly recommend that you check it out!)

While at Stanford, I started learning how to program iOS apps for music. I was working on a new musical instrument for the iPad called Soundshape. Though it never made it to production, here's a short (not really, it's kinda long) video of me presenting the project to my class.

Where did you get the idea for JamSnap?

The goal of Soundshape was to bring the experience of music-making to everyone by simplifying it to a process of doodling and humming — something everyone can do! This then turned into the ability to add doodles and sounds on photos, since photos are something that made the canvas more interesting and also added a fun twist while sending photos to friends. If a friend sent me a photo of him or her self with some squiggles on them, I would be very curious to hear it as it could have funny sounds, or explanations, or simply a message to me. I was excited about it and gradually the squiggles simplified to simply being dots on the photo.

What's it like to develop apps where sounds are so central to the experience?

Developing apps for sound is something I have been doing for the past 3 years now. I have worked on vastly different projects, from foot controlled iPad controllers enabling granular synthesis on the iPad (GrainProc - available here), to a software simulated circuit bending app (bent.fm - available here), to JamSnap. Audio is fun (except for when you have to deal with issues in setting up the audio infrastructure on iOS apps). I love that the power to do so many different things with sound can now reside in the palm of my hand (thanks Steve Jobs!)

What do you love about developing apps?

Developing an idea into a product is one of the most fun experiences in life. I am really glad that I get to live in an era where we have the ability to prototype mostly any idea in a weekend. The very special thing about the iPhone is that it also makes it very easy to share the final product with the world through the App Store platform. Of course, it has gotten extremely competitive, but I think it's great for the consumer, to be able to have so many valuable things available on your phone, mostly free!

What are your hobbies?

I really love making music. I started playing the guitar in high school. Initially I started off wanting to play metal music, but those roads mostly lead to a lifetime pursuit of guitar racing, instead of music. I then turned to jazz music which definitely has enough complexity to interest anyone for a lifetime, or ten. After coming to Stanford, I also started developing an interest in electronic music. These days I like working on many different kinds of music, experimenting with different sources of getting sounds as well as fusing my different musical interests together to create something interesting. Some of my music can be found on SoundCloud.

What do you wish you'd known about development early on?

One of the most important lessons I learnt at Stanford, was that pushing the limits of what seems reasonable can really help you grow way faster than you thought possible. One particular night, I was panicking about a class submission the next day. We were required to make a sound visualizer using OpenGL but I had never done any graphics programming before. However, once I got down to it, the OpenGL got out of the way really fast and I spent a majority of the time making the visualizer 'pot-smoking'ly cool, not just functional. I learnt this early enough but I could have learnt it even earlier.

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What is JamSnap?

JamSnap is the best new way to capture moments in your life. Snap a photo, add sounds, and share your JamSnap with the people close to you.

It’s easy! Snap. Jam. Share.

Main Features 

Snap unlimited photos and capture sounds for free

Tap and hold to tag your photos with sounds

Share instantly via Email, SMS, Twitter, and Facebook

Find, follow, and interact with your friends

Get the most out of JamSnap! Grant the app permission to access your microphone so you can post your photos, with sound.

Have questions, problems, or feedback? Reach out to us at [email protected]