Flipagram review: make interesting video slideshows out of Instagram and camera roll photos

Who would have ever thought there would come a day when looking at someone’s vacation slideshow would actually be interesting and fun. Thanks to mobile technology, and the advent of digital filter effects, we are able to turn even the most mundane images into works of art.

Flipagram is a photo and video app that takes your pictures, sets them to music, and makes it simple to publish your newly created slideshows to Instagram, Facebook, and more…

Design

The app is fairly plain. The colors are similar to Instagram’s brown and beige hues with blue accents. If you didn’t know you were using a different app, you might think you were in Instagram’s.

Grabbing photos and creating a Flipagram is very easy. Tap the big “Create” button to begin. Add photos from your device’s camera roll, your Instagram account, or take pictures from within the app. You can also add from all of the above for one Flipagram.

After you’ve selected your pictures, you can move them around so they will be displayed in the order you want. Then, add a song, title your creation, speed up or slow down the slide show and you are ready to go. Once finished, you can share your Flipagram on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Or, you can send it directly through email or save it to your camera roll.

App Use

To get started, tap “Create” and begin by adding photos. Tap “Add photos” at the bottom of the screen to call up the options. You can add pictures from your device’s photo albums (including Shared Photos), from your Instagram account, and by taking pictures with the in-app camera. You can grab a few photos from one place, and then grab a few more from another. Once you’ve added all of the images you want, begin rearranging them. Touch and drag any picture to move it to a different place in line. To delete a photo from the list, tap it to call up editing options. You can delete, duplicate, or crop any photos in this section.

When all of your photos are in their proper order, tap the “Next” button at the top right side of the screen. This will take you to the refinement section. Here, you can toggle the Instagram auto time adjuster on or off, change the speed of the slideshow, add audio, add a title, and change the size and font of the title.

To make a slideshow that fits into Instagram’s 15-second time limit, toggle the “Auto Time For Instagram” switch on. If you are planning on sending your Flipagram somewhere else, you can manually adjust the speed of the slideshow. Drag the speed meter left or right, depending on how fast or slow you want the images to change.

If you want to add music to your slideshow, tap the plus (+) icon next to the Audio tab. You can add any song you want from your device’s music library. I suggest trying to fit a song length with your slideshow length. For example, if your slideshow is 1:23 seconds, try to find a song on your iPhone that is about that long. If you don’t have enough slides to fit a whole song, you can adjust where the song starts to make it work.

When you have selected a song, you can adjust the start time by dragging the waveform from right to left. You can find the moment you want to begin the music by tapping the play button on the Flipagram and moving the waveform down until you hit the right spot (like, the chorus or something).

You can add an opening title by toggling the “Title Display” switch on. Then, add a title to your Flipagram and adjust the length of time it will stay on the screen from one to two seconds. You can also change the font by selecting from about 350 or so different options.

Once the title has been edited, play the Flipagram to be sure it is exactly the way you want it. Then, tap “Finish” to finalize your creation. Then, you can share your Flipagram on a variety of different social network sites. If you want to send it to Instagram, the app will automatically save a version to your Camera roll and then connect you to Instagram so you can add it manually. I was unsuccessful at sending my Flipagrams to Facebook or YouTube from within the app.

The Good

These fun little slideshows are very easy to make. It is simple to create a 15-second Instagram video that you can share with everyone. I made five Flipagrams in the short time it took me to write this review.

The Bad

I was never able to send a Flipagram to Facebook or YouTube from within the app. However, I was able to save them to my camera roll and subsequently post them from each social networking app separately. I think there are still a few glitches to work out in the sharing department. This error was not related to copyright laws. It was an software error.

Value

Flipagram costs $1.99 to download at a discounted price of 33 percent off. At the two-dollar price range, the value is stretched a bit thin. However, it is worth it to be able to easily create fun slideshows on a variety of social networking sites, even if the sharing feature is broken right now.

Conclusion

If you have any interest in creating simple slideshows to share on your favorite social networking sites, this is a great app for making that happen. The price is reasonable at $1.99. However, I’d buy it now while it is on sale. The full $2.99 price tag is too high, in my opinion. This app is available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Download it in the App Store today.

Related Apps

Instabot is another Instagram client that does things a bit different. Slideshow Builder lets you create slideshows on your iPhone and iPad.

What are your favorite slideshow creation apps? Do you use Instagram?