Series, an iOS photo app that helps you lay out your photos in creative ways for posting on social media, is now shaping up to become the must-have companion app for users posting their photos to Instagram Threads. On Threads, you can view images full screen, and with the right formatting, you can share full-screen seamless panoramas of your photos as well.
This has already led some users to experiment with the new format, as artist Pete Halvorsen did, by experimenting with different aspect ratios and then splitting up photos so users could click on them in full-screen mode and swipe through.
This, in turn, prompted Series developer Ryan Carver to add new tools — specifically a tool called TH+ — to cater to the needs of Threads users to make this process easier.
Carver has a background in photography and design, having previously led product development at photo-sharing app VSCO and having co-founded Typekit, which sold to Adobe, now Adobe Fonts. But for the past four years, he’s been working as an independent iOS developer, focused mostly on Series.
The original inspiration for the app actually came from his own photography, curating and designing a gallery show in 2019, Carver told TechCrunch.
“Out of that experience, I wanted two things: One, better tools to explore visual relationships between images, and two, to make it easier to share multiple images together,” he said. “The Instagram Carousel became the canvas for this; it’s such a great format for sharing multiple images in unique layouts,” he noted.
He initially created Series as a tool that could design for the Instagram carousel and other social media, including TikTok. The app offers a variety of tools to mix photos and videos together, as well as other features like easy-to-use margin and edge controls, the ability to use layered photos or videos to create backgrounds, flexible layouts to tell stories using Diptychs and Triptychs, plus the option to post carousels and more.
Carver says the best way to use Series is to add several photos and then explore the different layouts it offers to tell your visual story — like photo pairings, stacks, grids, and carousels.
But after seeing how Threads supported full-screen panoramas, Carver added a new TH+ Frame Ratio to Series within days of Threads launching to the public, he says. The feature has since been discovered and used by Meta employees, including CTO Andrew Bosworth (@boztank), who posted an impressive Everest Pano that attracted over 7,000 likes and 180 replies.
Many users on Threads have since begun trying out the pano option by taking one image and then spreading it out across multiple panels for users to swipe through. Some also put the full image at the end of their carousel.
To gain access to the TH+ Frame Ratio, Series users will have to upgrade to the Pro subscription.
This $15 per year package comes with a bevy of other advanced tools as well, like the ability to import and lay out more than two photos or videos at a time; the ability to split content over more than three panels for Instagram’s Carousel or Threads; high-resolution export; the ability to export video up to 60 seconds long; the ability to preview Instagram Posts or Stories before exporting; custom templates so you can save and apply your favorite looks; power tools for complex layouts; and custom app icons.
Since launching version 1.0 in December 2019, Series has attracted around 5,000 monthly active users, and roughly half are paying subscribers. The app was updated to version 2.0 in December 2022 with support for video and more layout options, then more recently added the TH+ Frame Ratio with a July release aimed at Threads users.
The app has since caught the attention of Instagram head Adam Mosseri, who responded to a request from Series on Threads asking if there was a dev-relations person for Threads the app maker could speak to.
“Working on tighter integration like faster workflow, better preview, more layout options,” Series’ post teased.
The app is a free download with in-app purchases on the App Store and supports both iPhone and iPad.
Source @TechCrunch
