With: Path Inc’s Own Take On Mobile Photography
Path, the developers of the eponymous app for the iPhone, has come up with a mobile check in app with a focus on who you’re with. In their original app, Path, the developers focused more on sharing a picture or moment privately with a select group of friends. At a recent hackathon, the company saw that their users also wanted to selectively share their moments on public social networks, such as Twitter. They also saw a great demand for users tagging who they were with when sharing these moments. This is where the idea for With was born.
The core concept of With is as if you took the main features of Foursquare, Twitter and Instagram and combined them in a streamlined app. When you first install the app on your iOS device, it automatically asks for your Twitter login so you can post to your account and tag friends you are with. It also suggests friends who are also using the service.
When you’d like to share who you’re currently “With”, you are presented with a simple screen to tag who you’re with and what you are doing. You are then presented with the option to take a picture to document the moment. The picture is optional. It seems the developers are emphasizing who you are with. This then gets posted to your Twitter feed with a link to your picture.
This clearly takes features from other social networks, so why use With? The company says the service rewards friends who you are with the most often. They rise to the top of your profile when viewed from within the app. The company also has a couple of features coming out soon that will reward these close friends.
With their original app, I had a hard time grasping the appeal of Path, but with their latest project, I feel they have the right features, interaction and simplicity to keep users interested and using their service. It combines the check in features of Foursquare with the photo sharing features of Instagram in a simple app. You can read their announcement of With on their website and download the app on the iTunes App Store. Let us know if you like it in the comments below and tell us if this is something you could stick With.
