PhoneZap for iOS

Photo Zap is similar in many ways to Instagram and other photo sharing services, but with a smaller user base and more limiting features. The result is not a bad experience -- far from it -- but it doesn't feel quite as polished or as easy to use as some of the alternatives on the App Store. That said, it has its merits, and with a decent response speed and plenty of sharing and interaction features, as the user base grows, it will become a more viable app.

Setup takes a few moments as you create an account, add your user information, and set the basic options. It's pretty standard, though it doesn't offer Facebook or Twitter integration up front, so you'll be creating an account from scratch (good for some, time consuming for others). From there you can create new "zaps," which are uploaded to a Web site with your username attached. The zaps can be shared publicly or with specific users and they can include images and text. The current user base is small so you'll find zaps from a few days ago alongside those from today, but there are users and the zaps are interesting.

PhotoZap works well enough, but feels at many turns like an unpolished service. Some text is formatted strangely, menus are in the wrong spot at times, and while the app is almost always responsive and quick, sometimes it hangs and stalls for seconds at a time. That aside, the core components work well, and with time and new iterations, it could be a solid sharing service.