Waddle

Instant group albums. Connect. Create. Together.

[waddleapp-blog]

Introducing Batch Upload

We're excited to announce that you can now batch upload multiple photos in a single post! Simply select the photos you want to post, swipe to add a message on each, and hit post.  

   We've also dramatically improved upload speed, making Waddle the fastest, easiest way to create group albums with friends and family.

So get the update and go make some memories!

[waddleapp-blog]

"I Left My Heart in San Francisco"

A few months ago, I realized I needed to get out of California.  Born and raised in Orange County and having lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past two years, I’ve had my share of palm trees, golden bridges and Abercrombie model lookalikes everywhere you look. As wanderlust gripped my heart and took over any rational thought process, I decided to move to Seattle.  I just… picked it and went with it.  So two weeks ago, I traded in my sunscreen for an umbrella.  I could not possibly be happier.

   To commemorate leaving my beloved San Francisco, I created a Waddle album named (appropriately) "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" and posted my last memories of the city, as well as a few snippets from the drive up to Seattle, and finally the Emerald City herself in all her overcast glory.  Some necessary moments to document: the last happy hour I shared with my best friend, the wine bottles leftover from my going away wine and cheese themed party, and a silly string fight in front of Cupid’s Span along the Embarcadero.  Using Waddle to document my last moments in California was essentially like having a private photo journal where I could look back and reminisce on my favorite memories… many of which seemed to include wine.  

   Then came the long drive, with a day spent cliff diving in Tahoe, and then miles and miles of lush greenery, with endless stops for gas and McFlurries.  And then finally, Seattle.  A surprise Welcome To Seattle party thrown by new and old friends, a trip to Pike Place Market, and coffee.  Lots and lots of coffee.  Throughout it all, little snapshots to tell the story of this important transition in my life.  Different from other Waddle albums, because this one was just for me.

   I’ve mentioned this before, but using Waddle is so much more personal than Instagram or Facebook.  And because of that, I’ve realized that the quality of the photo doesn’t matter nearly as much.  If the horizon line is crooked, or the photo blurry, it’s because I was more focused on making memories than recording the memories.  And isn’t that what taking snapshots is really about in the first place?

From my last few weeks in California, to the long drive up the coast, to finally arriving in my new town full of hip restaurants to discover and friends to make and photogenic buildings to photograph… Waddle is there to help me organize it all.  Because these are memories I never want to forget.

[waddleapp-blog]

What Happens at a Bachelorette Party...

    Don’t tell my friends that work at Waddle, but I had to turn off my push notifications this past weekend (just temporarily, I promise guys!).  Why would I do such a ridiculous thing, you ask?  Let me paint a picture for you.  I was in Paso Robles, going wine tasting of course – I’m not sure there’s much else to do there – for my sister’s bachelorette party and suggested to all the girls that we share our photos from the weekend on Waddle instead of constantly shoving our iPhones in each others’ faces to laugh at the hilarious antics that were sure to ensue.  I’m pretty sure our sommelier was ready to murder us as the girls fiddled with their iPhones and sharing photos became our immediate priority instead of sipping on cab.  Our phones buzzed simultaneously every three seconds, and when I started to feel bad for Maria the Frustrated Sommelier I switched off my notifications.

While my younger sister’s ancient flip phone (yes, those still exist) is due to appear on an upcoming episode of Antique Roadshow, her friends are pretty hip, and every single one of us Waddled photos on our iPhones for the remainder of the weekend.  From an opossum that I was brave/stupid enough to approach outside of one winery, to a phenomenal breakfast that my sister’s roommate cooked for us the first morning, to a series of mustache photos that quickly became the theme for the weekend… the ease and delight of sharing our memories instantly and privately made the weekend only more memorable.  I think we may have even convinced my sister to get an iPhone, which is a miracle in and of itself.  Hmmm… wedding present maybe?

    One interesting thing I noticed as the weekend progressed was that the girls didn’t treat Waddle as a social media outlet but instead just a quick way to share photos in the moment, which was easy to do since we were all together.  We used the album we created as a way to easily share photos we would have ordinarily have texted and saved the ones we wanted to our iPhones directly from the app.  Although many of the photos shared from the various wineries were very similar, it was so fun to see each of my friends’ unique perspectives.  A few days later, my friend Lyssia created an album on Facebook using photos we all had contributed to the Waddle album, but excluded ones we didn’t want the Internet seeing – and let’s face it, this was a bachelorette party, so there were plenty of those.

Whether for work or for play, for wine tasting debauchery or your kids’ soccer games, Waddle continues to impress an entirely new way to share.  The level of privacy is up to you.  Because we won’t judge what happens at those soccer games.

[waddleapp-blog]

Baby, You're a Firework

I’m going to begin this post with an incredibly cheesy albeit true statement: there’s something about fireworks that brings us together.  I was in Orange County recently at a hip gastropub with a hip musician friend and as we walked to the car, I noticed the Disneyland fireworks exploding behind the buildings in front of us, and wordlessly him and I stopped in our tracks to gaze at the pops of color that splashed and sizzled across the sky.  We couldn’t help ourselves.  Fireworks are just simply… magical.  As I thought ahead to this week’s Waddle post, subsequently with America’s birthday rapidly approaching, I realized how cool it would be to see Fourth of July fireworks from the perspective of people from all over the country.  I don’t think I truly became an American until I created the Waddle album Baby, You’re A Firework.  To view the amazingness that ensued since Independence Day on Wednesday, please search for the join code katyperry on Waddle.

Since the 4th, my phone has been buzzing every half hour with a new photo of fireworks shows from around the country.  The 40+ members of this public album contributed fireworks from Newport Beach, New York City, Boston, Seattle, and a handful of other cities, each outdoing the last.  Collectively we gathered on our lawn chairs, children’s delighted oohs and ahhs heard above the whistles and pops of the light show that danced above America, and we snapped memories with our iPhones.  Yours truly almost missed the grand finale because she was peeing in a bush somewhere, but we won’t talk about that.

The beauty of Waddle is its privacy, the intimate nature of sharing photos with specific groups of people without the prying eyes of the Internet watching.  Despite that, I was curious to discover the potential of a public album, similar to searching hashtags on Twitter or Instagram.  What I found through this endeavor was a highly interactive way of viewing strangers’ photos – something entirely unique that I have yet to find on any other social media platform.  The most interesting thing of all was witnessing photos roll in from different time zones (being in California, most fireworks shows were already over before mine began).  First came Boston and New York City, then Oklahoma and Tennessee, lastly the west coast.  A friend had to remind me that this holiday was exclusive to the US of A as I wondered aloud why no international photos rolled in.

Perhaps most interesting of all came a photo of the fireworks “show” from San Diego, which looked like several colossal white explosions spitting up from the ground simultaneously.  I later learned that a computer glitch caused all of San Diego’s fireworks to go off at the same time, which resulted in this 30-second spectacle.

San Diego wardrobe malfunctions aside, pictures of fireworks with palm trees swaying in the foreground, sizzling grand finale shots, handheld sparklers, and the bokeh photos (my personal favorite), composed Baby, You’re A Firework.  It’s not easy to capture a good firework photo on the iPhone, but these were stunning.  The tradition that binds us all together, regardless of our beliefs and lifestyles, was a truly beautiful sight to witness in real time.  If you missed it, I urge you to join the album and take a peek.  I would love to see your fireworks photos as well – just make sure to list the location you snapped the picture in your caption.  As our friend Ms. Perry so eloquently puts it, “You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine, just own the night like the 4th of July.”

[waddleapp-blog]

Confessions of an Instagram Addict... on Waddle

    If you know me, you know I am always glued to my iPhone.  I was scrolling through photos tagged of me on Facebook the other day and came to the startling realization that almost every photo portrayed a girl glued to an iPhone, held up approximately 14 inches from her face, concentration etched in her knitted brows.  What was she doing in 97.8% of these photos?  Taking pictures of course.  I am both rather proud and embarrassed to admit that my iPhoneography addiction, largely fueled by popular photo sharing app Instagram, has become a veritable hobby.   Along with the constant photo snapping has come an entirely new form of social interaction: the instawalk.  It’s exactly like it sounds: deliberately going to a photogenic location with other photographers with the sole intent of taking photos to post to Instagram.  What results are hundreds of pictures, often of the same sunset or graffiti wall, and hours and hours spent editing said pictures for the amusement of our followers and hopefully the admiration of our peers.  It’s almost as cool as geocaching.

I was on one such instawalk this past weekend with a few friends.  We strolled around the gorgeous UC Berkeley campus here in the bay area, then headed down to the Berkeley Marina, which afforded stunning views of the San Francisco skyline, Golden Gate Bridge, and silhouetted kites aplenty.  All for the sake of taking pictures.  Later over pizza, in true antisocial fashion, we each stared down at our phones, flipping through the photos, and wondered aloud if the horizon line was slightly crooked, or if the contrast was too much, or if we should apply VSCO CAM or not.  We showed one another our phones again and again, looking for validation.  Then it hit me.  This is what Waddle is for.

Right then and there, I made each of my friends download the app.  I created an album called makeagoodfacetome (don’t ask), added a join code and next thing I knew we were swapping our edited photos back and forth in the photo album, adding feedback in the form of comments.  I secretly hoped no one was watching – we had just given antisocial an entirely new name.

The album continued to come in handy over the past few days.  Not only did we use it to share photos we wanted feedback on, but also silly, behind-the-scenes snapshots that weren’t worthy of Instagram but still captured the day’s antics.  One such photo was of me lying on the ground – in Berkeley mind you, so probably not the cleanest of grounds – trying to capture the perfect shot.  Ninja style.

I have shared edited photos with other instafriends before via text, to garner their opinion and feedback.  The Waddle album worked much better, for several key reasons.  First, it is much faster than sending photos via iMessage.  While you do upload one photo at a time into your photo album, it is a quick and easy process.  I’m sure I’m not the only one who has gotten frustrated at how long it takes to send text messages of photos, especially if sending more than one.  Viewing photos in an album on Waddle is virtually the same as in a text message, except it comes with a like and comment button, something I have wished for many times while texting.  I’ve even been known to double tap a text message in an effort to ‘like’ it – don’t lie, you’ve done it too.  In addition, Waddle provides several basic editing tools such as Sharpen, Crop, and Redeye.  While I use other apps to perform these particular functions, the casual iPhoneographer will find them useful and easy to use.

Whether you have dozens of photo editing apps that you use on the regular or just take pictures here and there like normal people, Waddle is an easy and interactive way for you to share your work with peers before the world sees it.  Taking photos is a great excuse to go on adventures.  So get out there and make some memories.

[waddleapp-blog]

Waddle: A Brief Overview

I’m excited to introduce Laura Lawson, an amazingly talented artist, blogger and iPhoneographer, who recently joined the Waddle team as our resident blogger.  Laura will be writing a regular series of blog posts sharing her experiences using Waddle.  The post below is the first of that series.  I'm looking forward to learning about her adventures on Waddle, and hope that you will too.  Enjoy!  - Parker Emmott, Co-founder of Waddle

Twitter’s got a bird and sometimes a whale, Instagram’s got a hip looking camera, Facebook’s got Zuck, and Waddle has, appropriately, a cheeky blue penguin.  It seems that ever since the documentary March of the Penguins was released a few years back, penguins’ trendiness has escalated notably – their unusual lack of fear around humans, famed social tendencies, and all around cuteness lands them pretty high on the awesome scale.  When a group of our tuxedoed friends hang out on their glacier, they are called a waddle.  When a group of humans hang out on our concrete or freshly fertilized lawns or wherever else we congregate, we are called a crowd.  In these crowds, we like to document what we’re doing because it makes us feel important.  You do it, I do it, my mom even does it.  Foursquare check-ins, quick pictures of food before it’s inhaled to post to Twitter, Instagram #fromwhereistand photos, Facebook tagging to let the world know where we’re at.  Constantly.  I was at a bridal shower recently where every person there already knew specific details about my life that I had not told them.  I shouldn’t have been so surprised; I mean I do post just about everything that happens to me on the Internet.  “A hawk just flew by!” 12 likes.  Just kidding.  But seriously, that got 12 likes.

Assuming I’m not alone in my over-sharing tendencies, you probably feel similarly to me in that the Internet can be way too public.  There are too many popular pages out there, too many newsfeeds, too much to keep up with in general.  Take Instagram for example.  What used to become a fun way to share my day-to-day life with friends has turned into an actual art form full of latergrams where the edit is becoming more important than the moment.  What happened to the intimacy and spontaneity of social media, if it was ever even there to begin with?

What if there was a way to instantly share photos of your sister’s gymnastics meet with just your family, or see pictures of what your college frat buddies were up to on the regular, now that you’ve all graduated and have your first real jobs?  Group texting works for quick messages once in awhile, but not as something to check up on regularly.  What we over-sharers desperately need are virtual photo albums linked with specific groups of people to share events and keep in touch, without having to divulge anything to the rest of the world.

Enter: Waddle.

A free iPhone app now available for download, Waddle is an easy way to synchronize your photos with only the people that matter.  It’s a group of virtual photo albums where you and your friends can instantly connect and get up to speed on specific topics or events.  The theme and subject matter is entirely up to you, as are the people you choose to share it with.  Using Waddle is simple.  You can invite iPhone users to join via your contacts or Facebook friends list.  Once you’re ready to waddle, you can start creating photo albums.  For people that are physically near you, a simple shake of your iPhone will allow you to add other Waddle users to a specific album.  For those that aren’t physically near you, you can create an album with a password called a ‘join code’ which will make you feel important and elite as you share the code with only those you want to join the album.  The same idea applies if you want to create a public album based around a certain event or theme like a Bon Iver concert or fireworks on the 4th of July.

Photo sharing is not a new concept – I can remember as a kid waiting what seemed to be a bazillion weeks after getting a disposable camera developed to ooh and ahh over the prints and show them to my friends.  Waddle is photo sharing for 2012.  It’s instant, it’s interactive – there is an option to like and comment on photos – and did I mention it’s instant?  Every time someone comments or posts to a specific photo album on Waddle you receive a notification.  Now you can see Grandma’s new dentures, the pizza your boyfriend is having for lunch, and the sunset in Costa Rica as seen by your best friend while she’s on vacation… without having to scroll through a newsfeed.  Because we know these things are important to you.

Happy waddling!

[waddleapp-blog]

We Want You... To Model for Waddle

Everything we do at Waddle we do for our users.  But the photos in the “What’s a Waddle?” Tutorial and those on our website today are of random strangers from stock photos.  That has never felt right to us.  So... we want to change this and feature some of our awesome users having awesome times. Yes, that means you.  

What type of photos are we looking for?  Photos of you and your friends or family that capture special moments you’ve shared together and that have brought you closer together. Only restriction - we can’t feature pics with alcohol.  Sorry, but have to keep it clean :-/

How do I submit my photos?  Either post your submissions to the wall on Waddle’s Facebook page, or simply email them to us at [email protected].  

What’s in it for you?  Those who submit the winning photos will receive a $50 Amazon gift certificate as a very small token of our appreciation.  

Where exactly will my photos be displayed?  The four screen “What’s a Waddle?” Tutorial that is featured in the app (on the Login screen and the Help tab), and on our website.  To refresh your memory, and to highlight the dire need for improvement, the current version is below.

We can’t wait to see what amazing photos you submit.  Again, just post your photos to the wall on Waddle’s Facebook page, or email them to us at [email protected].  And if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us at the same address.

[waddleapp-blog]

New Hotness - App Update + $pecial Announcement

At Waddle, we are committed to helping groups of friends and family connect and capture their lives together in a fun and meaningful way.  This is a big vision, to be sure, but one that we feel is truly important.  The release of the first version of Waddle just a couple weeks ago was the exciting first step towards making this vision a reality.  While we’ve been blown away by the positive feedback, coverage (GigaOm, Forbes), and usage to date, we know we have a lot of work to do.  To that end, today we are announcing the first update to Waddle, which includes improvements and fixes for some of the most commonly encountered issues.  The latest version of Waddle is live in the app store, and now includes:  

Delete:  Sometimes we post a picture or a comment that we just didn’t mean to.  Now you can delete these posts or comments with a simple swipe-to-delete gesture. 

Find more friends:  We want to make it as easy as possible to connect with your friends and family, so we added two new features to help you do just that:

Facebook Connect:  You can now find your Facebook friends already on Waddle, or invite those not yet on Waddle, using Facebook Connect.  To enable this, simply click “Facebook Connect” in your Settings.  Note: while you can also share individual photos from a Waddle on Facebook, the full content from a Waddle is still private and only viewable by those invited to that Waddle.

Multiple email addresses:  Different friends have different email addresses for you in their address books.  You can now help your friends find you on Waddle more easily by linking multiple email addresses to your account.  

Other highlights:

Effects - Add cool filters, effects or even a comical mustache to any picture you post on Waddle by clicking the “Effects” button right after snapping or selecting the photo you want to post.

Share by Postcard - You can send your favorite pictures from Waddle on a beautiful postcard to friends and family anywhere in the world.  To do this, simply click the share button on the full screen view of any picture, and choose the Share by Postcard option.

$pecial Announcement:

We are excited to announce that we have closed our seed funding led by a partner who shares our commitment to building an important and lasting company - Tencent.  For those who are not familiar, Tencent is a Chinese internet company that launched its flagship instant messaging product, QQ, in 1999 and has since built the company into one of the largest web platforms in the world.  We are thrilled to have Tencent as a partner and look forward to drawing on their experience and expertise as we continue to build Waddle into the product and company we know it can become.  

With this new investment we will be growing our team to help us build and shape the future of Waddle.  If you are a world class iOS or web engineer or designer, please shoot us an email at [email protected]. 

[waddleapp-blog]

Introducing Share by Postcard

Our friends at Sincerely have just launched something awesome, and it’s already live for you on Waddle.  Through our partnership with Sincerely via their Ship API, you can send your favorite pictures from Waddle on a beautiful printed postcard, right from the app.  

Our mission at Waddle is to help you connect with those you care about and make it fun and easy to capture memories together.  The ability to print and ship your favorite captured memories is therefore the perfect tangible complement.  Send a thank you postcard after waddling a friend’s party, or send grandma a photo cute enough to frame after waddling a family vacation.  Whatever the printed gesture, we hope you enjoy.

To send a postcard via Sincerely, simply select the photo you want to send from Waddle, tap the share button at the bottom right hand corner of the picture, tap the Postcard button, and Sincerely will walk you through the rest.  Here’s what it looks like...

   And if the spirit moves your iceberg, Polo the Plaid Penguin accepts postcards at the following address:

Polo the Plaid Penguin  Steuart Tower  1 Market Street, Ste 500  San Francisco, CA 94105

[waddleapp-blog]

Waddle Steps into the App Store

Today we are extremely excited to launch our first version of Waddle - available as a free download in the App Store! 

Waddle is the way for you and your friends to connect and privately capture memories together through expressive photo conversations.  Start a Waddle on the fly, add the friends you want included, and instantly share photo messages with the group.  This private photo conversation provides a fun way for groups to interact and communicate in real-time, while automatically creating a collectively captured memory to look back on. 

Why Waddle?  Why now?

When we set out to build Waddle we spent a lot of time talking to users and thinking deeply about how we can leverage the powerful mobile devices in our pockets to truly enhance our real world social experiences.  As we dug in, we were struck by a subtle yet important observation.

Historically, digital photo sharing and communication have been predominantly separate activities - with communication generally being an ancillary part of photo sharing, and photos generally being an ancillary part of communication.  To date, mobile photography and communication apps have largely been designed to optimize and extend this legacy paradigm to the mobile context.  We saw the opportunity to do more…

Because mobile phones today are both powerful communication devices and high quality cameras, we believe that making photos part of our conversations is an inevitable evolution in the way we communicate and connect.  In doing so, we not only have a more powerful and expressive way to communicate, but we turn our personal conversations into something we will want to look back on forever.  

So, When and How do I use Waddle?

Waddle is a lightweight and flexible utility for you to share, connect and capture your life with those you care about, and to do so in the scenarios that fit you best.  Whether you are heading out on a group outing for the day or night, taking a trip, capturing a special event, or just looking to catch up and connect with friends or family, Waddle is perfectly designed to fit your needs.  For a closer look at Waddle and what the in app experience is like, check out the demo video below.

Fun Fact

Why the name “Waddle”?  Well, in addition to being a somewhat humorous walk, Waddle is the name for a group of penguins on land.  Because our service is built for groups and penguins are such friendly animals, the name just fit our mission and our brand. 

On a personal note…

We can’t wait to see you on Waddle and hear your feedback on our app.  We’re all ears at [email protected].  And if you’re a developer or designer, shoot us your resume and why you’re awesome at [email protected]