PhotoAppLink Initiative Solves a Multi-App Photo Editing Dilemma
Many folks edit their photos in more than one app. They might take an HDR image in one app, apply color balance filters in another, then finally add artistic filters in yet a third before sending the photo off to various photo sharing and social network type sites. The problem has always been, however, the extra hassle of saving said photo to the Camera Roll after each editing app applies its transformations, then opening up the photo in a new app, applying settings, then repeat for as many apps as is necessary to get the perfectly edited photo.
The PhotoAppLink Initiative attempts to solve this problem via the open-source PhotoAppLink library, a mechanism by which apps incorporating the library can send photos from one app to the next without all that annoying save and re-launch. Created collaboratively by PocketPixels and CodeCrop, the feature is available right now in their and other photo editing apps: Snap!, Color Splash, Simply B&W, PicTools, AutoStitch, TrueHDR, Juxtaposer, Click! and Photogene.
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PhotoAppLink apps automatically detect other apps with the same library, and allow users to choose another compatible app with the PhotoAppLink interface. The second editing app is launched automatically, and the image is transfered in the background to the newly launching photo app, which frees up the user to continue to edit the photo. This allows for a much nicer user experience, and prevents the camera roll from becoming cluttered with several versions of each multi-app edited photo.
PocketPixels and CodeCrop both develop photo editing tools, so developing this initiative and code base together was a natural fit. The code is available on GitHub, a secure yet social coding hub that developers can use to share and disseminate code. The code is distributed as open-source, and includes good documentation to easily implement within any other photo editing app.
The developers hope to add more photo editing apps to the initiative in time, with several prominent photo app developers already on board to include the code in future releases, including PaperCamera, PhotoToaster, ColorBlast!, Color Range and MobileMonet.
