App: OKDOTHIS
Cost: Free
Platform: iOS
The new photography app OKDOTHIS aims to be a different sort of image app. By its own terms it is “a Community that encourages growth and inspires us all to DO more” rather than a simple app. To emphasize that idea of community, the first step after you create an account in the app is to add friends. You can choose to find these friends through your device’s contacts, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram or you can instead search for people or accept some of the suggestions provided by the app.
Once you have completed that step (or opted out of it), you are thrown right into the app. You will see a screen that says “Try this DO,” which offers a task posted by another user to inspire a specific type of photo. For example, as you can see below, the first suggested activity that I saw was to take a picture of my shoes. At this point, you can either scroll through photos taken by other users or click on the “Do This” button to take your own picture. When completing suggested tasks, you also have the option to use a photo that is already in your device’s image library.
Because this is an app focused on photography, you are given many options to optimize your shots. You can select what image ratio you would like to display from seven available options and you can then crop the image, add a filter or alter the tone in a variety of ways. Once you are happy with your image, you can post it under the task that it fulfills with a short answer to the question “What’s the story behind this photo?” By default images will be published to the photo feed and available for download, but users can also opt out of either of these when posting. If you choose to connect the app to your social media accounts, you can also have the image posted directly to either Facebook or Twitter.
Beyond taking photos based on prompts, you can also start with an image and then attach a “do” to it. If you take this approach, you can finish editing the image before writing your own “do”, searching for an existing one, choosing from those that you already have, or choosing from among those that you have previously bookmarked. You can also opt to upload the photo without attaching it to a “do.” If you would prefer, you can also create your own “do”, which can be either made public or kept private.
As a fundamentally social app, OKDOTHIS relies on users to post activities; but it also relies on them to create the optimal experience. If you don’t have many followers, you won’t see much activity in your feed, but you can still seek both photos and activities out through the search feature, which offers the option to browse categories, search for activities, photos or people, or find the “DO of the day”.
OKDOTHIS is a nice twist on photography apps, particularly for those who struggle to find inspiration for their images. I think it will be particularly perfect for those who want to begin taking more creative and artistic photos, but just don’t know where to start. By offering prompts and examples of high-quality images, OKDOTHIS is sure to improve your own photos while keeping you engaged in the process.