Cluster

Some new Cluster goodness is in the app store. New features with today’s update:

• The cluster details screen has been redesigned. You can now create a cluster without a time or location. 
• Anyone in the cluster can change the cover photo 
• Tap and hold on a person’s face to see a larger picture 
• Preview a photo you’re about to add by tapping and holding it 
• Better file-type support. 
• Bug fixes and error support.

Earlier today we released an update to Cluster that included Facebook and Twitter sharing. What we didn’t highlight is that with this release, we were able to utilize Twitter’s incredible new Twitter Cards!

Now, when you share a photo or album, the content will be visible and beautifully displayed in the tweet stream! You dont have to do anything different; just share like normal.

Here is how your Cluster content will appear on Twitter:

Single Photo

Cluster 

We’re really excited to utilize this amazing new tool. Looking forward to integrating deep linking into the experience next!

There is a new version of Cluster in the app store. Following up on our previous releases where we added favoriting, commenting, and redesigned the app, this release is the first step in optimizing the new user and invitation experience. 

The changes to this one aren’t as noticeable as the last release, but as we continue to iterate, these changes are going to make a big difference. Here’s the quick rundown:

• In app prompts when you are added to a cluster. 
• Highlighting suggested clusters on first login 
• Much improved first-time login screen, with informative tutorial about how Cluster works 
• Simpler process to invite friends to a cluster 
• Contact sorting based on system preferences 
• Newly designed invitation emails 
• Add members to a cluster by e-mail address 
• Cluster creator can change cover photo

Today we’re releasing Cluster 0.11.0 into the app store! (We’re still chugging away in public beta, but we will have the full 1.0 launch soon. Still more to do!)

The release today has four major parts:

Comments on Photos!

People have been asking for comments since the first time we started letting beta testers use the app. Better late than never! You can now comment on any photo in Cluster: Just tap the comment icon at the bottom right to join the conversation.

Showing Favorites on Photos

When we launched Favorites in our last release, it was difficult to find who had previously favorited the photo. It’s clearer now, being listed at the bottom of every photo (check out the screenshot above).

Sorting Pulldown

We’ve had photo sorting since our first release, but it’s also been difficult to find. In this release, we’re making it a little more accessible. Just pull down on any photo set and you’ll see the sorting options.

New Design

We’ve redesigned the Clusters list and individual Cluster view! The list has been simplified, and the individual view has been reorganized to bring more attention to the photos and people involved.

There’s much more in this release, but these are the changes we’re most excited about. We hope you enjoy!

Very excited to announce that today we released the 4th update to Cluster since our launch 3 weeks ago. And this one is fun. It brings two new interactions to the app.

Favorites

With this release, users can now easily favorite photos as they are looking through an album, which has been one of our most requested features. The original photo creator will get notified when something they added is favorited.

There are two ways this can happen. Users can tap the star in the lower right corner, or they can swipe directly down while looking at a photo.

We’ve also added sort by favorites to the Cluster page, so you can easily sort by popularity.

Nudging

Sometimes you add someone to a cluster and they forget to upload photos. We’ve now enabled a simple way for you to remind them. When you look at the member list for a cluster, you’ll notice a small “Nudge” button next to anyone who has photos but hasn’t contributed. A quick tap will send them a push notification that says “[Your Name] has nudged you to add photos to [Cluster Name]”.

Lighter Design

We’ve also updated the design of the app to be less dark and a little more friendly.

Give it a try. It’s available in the app store now.

Lots more coming soon!

Just a quick note saying that this morning we released a new version of Cluster in the app store which has some significant speed improvements when looking through photos. Your experience swiping left and right should be filled with a lot more photos and a lot less black loading screens.

Enjoy! Grab the update here!

We’ve been trying to get improvements to Cluster in your hands as soon as possible, and today we’re rolling out an update that allows you to edit the time and place of clusters you are or have created.

When you start or create a cluster, you can now adjust when it starts and ends, and where the photos are being taken.

We will set this automatically for you depending on what photos you’ve uploaded, but now you can adjust it in case you create a cluster on the first day of a multi day event, or before the event even starts!

Changing the time and date is simple, and if you want to change the location just tap on the map and move the blue circle over where the photos will be taken.

We hope this gives you a bit more flexibility for your clusters!

Today we’re very excited to officially launch Cluster, an app that will let friends and family collect each other’s photos from a shared experience in an exceptionally simple way.

The best experiences in life are enjoyed with other people. Since we all carry amazing cameras in our pockets these days, these experiences are usually captured by many different members of the group. Unfortunately, it’s never been easy for everyone to share and exchange photos after an event — until now.

Cluster makes this process effortless. After a shared experience — like a birthday party, wedding, or hang-gliding lesson — you simply open Cluster and choose a group of photos in order to create an album. Once you tag people to join the album, they launch Cluster and the app helps them find relevant photos to add.

Voilà! After just a couple of taps, everyone has contributed photos that the whole group can browse or download. Now it’s easier than ever to share photos after you share experiences.

We want to start simple, and our first goal is to make creating these collaborative albums quick and easy. Once you have a shared album, the possibilities are endless — and we’ll be rolling out new features to make the experience even more fun soon.

We really hope you enjoy this app. Please don’t be shy with sending feedback.

Cluster is a new app by Brenden Mulligan and Taylor Hughes.

Coming to the iPhone around March 2013.