Web/Mobile App Critique 


Snapbridge is a lesser known application, that is unless you're someone interested in photography, and also happen to own a Nikon DSLR camera that is equipped with Bluetooth. Mainly the SnapBridge app is used to wirelessly transfer you photos from your DSLR to your phone, where you can in-turn edit them via other applications (lightroom, photoshop) or post them directly to social media. Through the application you can also perform some basic camera functions such as "remote photography" and access "Nikon's Image Space", their own cloud based system offering unlimited storage space for your photographs. The application is quite simple and well put together all-in-all, and there truly are not many things I could think to change with it. You obviously start by downloading the app, once you have done that you set your Bluetooth settings on your camera for broadcast and allow the app to find the Bluetooth signal using your phone. Once you do this you pair the devices, run through a few pop-up questions, and begin your transfer. On the main screen it displays your camera type, whether you have your auto-link active, and options to download/remove photography from your SnapBridge. On your next tab to the right is where your photo's are located when they're downloaded, and clicking on these photos the app provides the date, time, resolution of the photo, file size of the photo, camera model the photo was taken on, what kind of lens you used for the photo, and finally the aperture and shutter speed of the lens. That was a very in-depth way of saying all of the information of the image is displayed and provided well. Also, when your viewing a particular photo, there are options in the bottom to trash the photo and a sharing option, going to all popular social media platforms, as well as your phones text app. Lastly, scroll right once more and you land on Nikon's provided cloud solution "Nikon Image Space" which they tout as an unlimited storage (for small file size photos) and undoubtedly offer cloud services for a price as well. I have not found the need to use this service, so I do not know much about it as I store all photos locally.




Now onto the things I dislike about the app. I feel there should be more communication between the application and your camera, meaning I think they should allow you to make changes to camera settings through the app as sometimes, especially in bright environments, the LCD screen on the camera can be difficult to pick up as it gets washed out. I think this would bring the functionality of the app to the next level. I think they could also add something along the lines of "Nikon School", and provide tips and tricks for your specific camera for people trying their hand with photography for the first time. I think this would be very beneficial and de-escalate the frustration of someone completely new to cameras. They might also consider having at-least a very basic editing system in the application itself, if not even partnering with someone to have this be an all-inclusive application you'd never have to leave. Other than those 3 things, I cannot recommend anything else.



Comments