iPhone apps for sending Photo Postcards
Our refrigerators are becoming increasingly bare with the decrease in travel postcards and increase in Facebook photo uploads. There are several easy to use and extremely inexpensive apps to document special moments in life and share it via snail mail, email, or social media–and sometimes all of the above. We’ve reviewed several here to help you identify one that best suits how you care to share with your loved ones, your social circles, and potential clients. These apps are great for sending out postcards to friends and family using your iPhone over the holiday season.
Postagram Postcards
The Postagram app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad app could be the only postcard app you need. The download is free, and custom postcards are delivered worldwide for the low, low price of 99 cents each. The set-up for the app is quick and simple. Postagram syncs with your photo library, Instagram, and Facebook albums, so you have several resources just a click away. You pick a profile photo that is printed like a return label on your postcard. When you create your postcard, you can customize text for each. Grandmother needs to hear from you in a very different way than your college roommate. You pay for the postcard with a secure credit card entry from the screen. You can also manage your address book and payment options online via the app’s developer Sincerely Inc. The Postagram app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad uses technology to connect with friends and family in a very old-school way.
shoot it!
The shoot it! app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad may be a free download, but the cost of the postcard and frustration of dealing with the app make it feel expensive—and not the good kind of expensive. The process for setting up the app is laborious, and you are required to input credit card information before you get a chance to check out the app. There are a lot of case sensitive requirements for usernames and passwords, so you have to guess at what parameter you may not have addressed. That’s frustrating. Fortunately, you can quickly sync to your camera libraries and choose a picture. The next step is choosing recipients, and it did not go smoothly. I simply could not make my sister’s address work, and I don’t know why. After the app crashed and a bit more fiddling about to get a recipient set up appropriately, I was able to craft a personalized message. One would anticipate getting a chance to preview the postcard before committing to the purchase, but there was no chance. Boom, and you are charged a fee that is only disclosed in the email receipt. The shoot it! app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad is unimpressive.
Postcard Star
For a quick and easy, but fairly uninteresting postcard, Postcard Star app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad is a good choice. The set-up to use the app is a snap. You enter your name and email address, then you accept the terms of use. You’re ready to send a postcard. Interestingly, my Gmail account was not accepted, but my Hotmail account was. The navigation for the app is from the bottom of the screen, so you can create postcards, pay, adjust settings, and access help with a tap on the screen. A neat feature is the help video. To add a postcard, you choose a photo from your library or take a shot through the app. You can choose a recipient’s address from your phone’s contacts. There are quick text options like the classic “Wish you were here!” If you use the app frequently, you can add your own custom text to the quick text list. The payment screen from the app is efficient and planned well. You have the option of credit card or paypal. The current domestic cost for a postcard is $1. You will appreciate the opportunity to preview your postcard and adjust photo placement before purchase. The Postcard Star app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad creates an extremely basic postcard for a very reasonable price.
Cards
The Apple Cards iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad app makes it easy for you to design and send a card via USPS. You choose from designs letter-pressed by hand, upload pictures, add custom text, and address the envelope. To choose your recipients, you tap to access your iPhone and iPad contacts. You can choose to send to domestic and international addresses. You will be charged sales tax for domestic shipping. I created a card for domestic delivery for $2.99. That’s still less expensive and takes less time than going to the card shop. And, the cards are attractive, interesting, and customizable. Currently, the Apple Cards iPhone and iPad app accepts Visa, MasterCard, and American Express only, so you can’t use your iTunes Account. The Apple Cards app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad is sophisticated, fun, and a great value.
Postino – Send postcards
The Postino postcard app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad lets you send postcards via snail mail and email. The navigation for the app is clearly and simply accessed from the bottom of the screen. The interface for creating the card makes it possible to create your postcard in a few touches on the screen. Graphically, the Postino app leaves a lot to be desired. It offers two frames for your postcard’s picture, and they are as uninteresting as the overstock cards sold in a dollar store. A quick improvement for this app would be to invest in the assistance of a graphic designer. The coolest feature of the app is the ability to sign your name on the screen. You can preview and edit before sending via snail mail or email from your device’s contact list. Payment for stamps is accepted through the Postino app via PayPal. Email postcards are free. The Postino app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad is a nice choice, but with a bit of graphic help, it could become a great choice.
Postage ~ Postcards
If you are looking for a postcard app that integrates social media options, then the Postage app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad is for you. You jump right into creating your postcard from the home screen. There are several themes available including the standard love, travel, birthday, and holidays. You can choose an image from your library, snap a photo, or copy an image from your device’s clipboard. The Postage app integrates photo effects like Instagram and Hipstamatic to add depth and dimension to the photos. You can also choose fonts, text colors, and text placement with a touch on the screen. When complete, you can share via email, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as save copies to your photo library. The Postage postcard app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad is a fun way to customize postcards and share electronically.
justWink Greeting Cards
American Greetings, a traditional card company, has created a fantastic postcard and greeting card app with Just Wink for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. The cards are modern, witty, smart, and appealing to a tech savvy crowd. American Greetings app developers should pat themselves on the back for creating great, customizable content, and also for addressing details that enhance a user’s experience with the app. For example, Thanksgiving cards have two categories—dark meat and light meat. The categories make you laugh with their tongue in cheek labels. As you create your postcard and the Just Wink app updates, a hilarious phrase pops up under the circle. While making the Thanksgiving card, you’re greeted with “carving bird” and “Mayflower power.” It makes sharing fun, and speaking of sharing, you can choose to send via email, SMS text message, or Facebook. Just Wink paper cards are available at drugstores and card shops nationwide, but they are not customizable like those you create through the Just Wink app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Just Wink makes not just a great e-card or electronic postcard, but it makes a fun user experience.
Lifecards – Postcards
If you love many of your favorite features from your graphic designing software, then you must download the Lifecards – Postcards app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. You have several interesting templates to customize, and you can sort based on the number of photos you want to share. You quickly and easily crop photos uploaded with responsive on-screen touches. You add text and text features like font, size, alignment, and color with just a couple of taps on the screen. The colors used are highly customizable as well. You have the opportunity to write and draw on the screen, as well as erase. You can change the format features to make the design less like a postcard and more like a family newsletter. The sharing features are well-planned as well. You can choose to email the Lifecards – Postcards e-card as a jpeg, png, or pdf. You can share as a Twitter pic, as well as upload to Facebook and Flickr from the app. The Lifecards – Postcards app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad is highly customizable, and it would certainly appeal to those with more advanced photography and graphic design skills.
Postale
The Postale app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad makes classic, gorgeous European vacation postcards similar to what you might find in your grandmother’s scrap book. When you make your first Postale postcard, you are guided through the process with pop-up hints and suggestions. You use just one image per Postale postcard, but the app makes it easy to incorporate panoramic photos as well. You can choose to make your image black and white or sepia as well. Unfortunately, that feature made the app stall, so hopefully the developers will work out that bug with an update. To give it that specific European flair, you can choose the red and blue bands to frame your postcard. With a couple of taps on the screen, you can change fonts, colors, and update text quickly and easily. You can create your own stamp with an existing photo or image saved on your device or in a photo album, or you can choose one of the interesting stamps illustrating recognizable monuments and works of art created by the Postale developers. You share your postcard via email, Facebook, or Twitter. For an app that allows you to create a digital postcard with limited options, the Postale app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad makes a rich, graphically interesting product and user experience.
HazelMail Postcards
The Hazel Mail app for iPhone and iPod Touch allows you to create snail mail postcards from your device or online at www.hazelmail.com. You are encouraged to go online to purchase Hazel bucks to buy each postcard for $1 worldwide. This is a great price when you consider the cost of purchasing a postcard and paying postage. You choose an image from your photo library, add text, and choose font, and you’re ready to send. The postcards are printed on nice quality stock, and the app only supports jpg or png images to increase image quality. The app currently drags, but once an updated version is released, it will hopefully be a quicker, easier experience. For those who like apps with a similar online experience, then the Hazel Mail app for iPhone and iPod Touch is a great option.
goPostal
The goPostal app for iPhone and iPod Touch is an extremely basic option for creating snail mail postcards. You can create postcards online in a similar experience to the iPhone and iPod Touch app. You choose your photo, add text, and choose recipients. goPostal directs you straight to a payment screen, so you do not have the opportunity to preview your postcard prior to payment. If you are going to take the time to create a customized postcard, then it makes sense to take a peek and make any corrections prior to payment and sending it. The app itself does not offer many features—you cannot even manipulate the choice of font. The goPostal app for iPhone and iPod Touch means well, but just does not compete well with other apps on this list.
Photogram
Wow! Photogram for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad creates cool, modern digital postcards to share via email, Facebook, and Twitter. You create your digital postcard from one screen, so you don’t spend a lot of time moving from one screen to the next, waiting for updates, or scrolling back to make corrections. The app is visually interesting and nicely produced as a result of the app’s developer, Timelines Inc., reaching out to artists and graphic designers who have designed themes for purchase within the app. Small business owners and marketing professionals should gobble up this app and maximize its great functionality. Photogram for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad is an opportunity to use images and messaging to make your email stand out from the mass of email inbox clutter.
Postman
The Postman app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad creates cheeky, edgy digital postcards with an incredibly well-designed interface. You navigate through the app from the bottom of the screen with three simple categories: front, back, and share. To add images and text, you simply tap and scroll through the design options. You can choose photos from your photo library or from the stock photos. What a great opportunity to make an “I want to go here!” postcard, instead of “Wish you were here!” You can apply themes to the photos a la Instagram and Hipstamatic, as well as a circa 1981 TV border and Retro Hollywood sign frame. The frames, themes, and effects have that vintage meets modern vibe currently chic. One of the cool touches is the ability to give a weather update on your postcard. You choose rainy, cloudy, or sunny, because, of course, you always report weather from your vacation. The Postman app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad brings a unique aesthetic to the postcard app world, and you will certainly want to share this one with your whole digital world—Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and everyone in your contact list.
Postcard On The Run
If you are looking for a well-designed app for sending snail mail postcards, then Postcard On The Run for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad should be at the top of your list. From the home page, the four steps for making your postcard are outlined, and the interface throughout the app guides you through the process clearly and efficiently. You can choose to take a photo through the app, as well as choose from your device’s albums or Facebook albums. The app lets you scroll through your albums with ease. Your finger glides through the album, and, with a tap, the photo you choose is enlarged. If the photo is not of an adequate quality, then a warning pops up to encourage you to choose another photo. You write your message and choose fonts and colors. You then sign the card with your finger. You can choose your recipients from your address book, and if you don’t have a physical address, Postcard On The Run will email on your behalf. It is also possible to create groups, so a small business owner could input a mailing list for clients. Another neat addition is the ability to choose a GPS map to place above the address. To send the postcard, you preview the postcard; the fee is posted; and you input your credit card through a secure connection within the app. Postcard On The Run app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad has created one of the most intuitive digital postcard apps that make a real world impact.
Postcard by Concierge.com
The Postcard app by Concierge for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad is like Instagram for digital postcards. You choose from well-designed frames, and then you snap a shot through the app. If you’re in Spain or Texas, you’ll want to take a shot through the cool bull frame. You add a message, and you’re finished. You’ll want to allow the app to track your location, so your recipients will be able to see exactly where you are in the world. It’s also a really cool way to track a vacation, so you can remember exactly where you are. All of those castles in the Loire Valley start to look the same after a couple of days, you know. You can choose to share your digital postcard through email and with the Postcard app users on concierge.com. A great addition to this app would be to accommodate more sharing with Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, etc. If the developers want to maximize the social experience of postcards and travel, then the Postcard app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad could become the go-to app with some upgrades.
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Thanks so much for the great app round up and for featuring Postagram.
Have you tried Sincerely Ink or PopBooth too?
Posted on November 16th, 2011 at 1:08 pm by Doc @ SIncerelyThe Sincerely app also looks pretty good, definitely worth trying out
Posted on November 16th, 2011 at 8:40 pm by Joe SeifiThis is a great list, with honest reviews!
Posted on November 21st, 2011 at 11:23 pm by iphonesurferI wish there could be a list like this for all similar apps.
It would help you buy the best App for the thing you want to do!
2 Thumbs up.
Great round up. Gave me an idea which application to download. Anybody in here who has tried Snap-A-Note? I think it’s a nice photography app that can also be used to send photo postcards directly to the email of your contacts. It’s free, so you might wanna give it a try. Anyway, thanks for this post again and I’m looking forward to read more.
Posted on January 2nd, 2012 at 10:31 pm by FLeonardGreat list! There’s a similar postcard app coming out soon called QuantumCards, that is geared towards helping small businesses send postcards to local neighborhoods. Looks interesting: http://quantumdigital.com/qcards
Posted on February 13th, 2012 at 6:56 pm by ChatkinsGreat List! Thank you.
Posted on December 6th, 2012 at 6:48 am by BarbaraA couple more things I would like to know . .
What is the quality of the cards delivered? and How long does it take?
It would be great f you did a follow up article!
eCard Express application has very nice greeting cards: http://www.ecardexpress.ca
Posted on December 15th, 2012 at 8:49 pm by Irene