Shoto rolls out ‘Album Swap’ that uses AI and machine learning for easier photo discovery


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Shoto the photo discovery app that was launched in September last year has rolled out a new feature dubbed as ‘Album Swap’ that intelligently matches and swaps your friends’ photos and videos with your own.

Every time you go an a trip with your loved once you end up taking a lot of photos thanks to your smartphone. However, most of us are reluctant to share these photos with others just because the process is boring and meticulous. Google Photos and Dropbox have actually made this task a lot easier but Shoto is taking a completely different approach to this problem with their apps for Android and iOS.

The app organizes photos into meaningful albums and then finds out who has photos or videos from those shared moments. You will simply have to select photos, tap on the Swap button and select the person you want to share the photos with. The app instantly shares the photos with the receiver and these photos are added to their Shoto app album.

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The Shoto app can inform users which friends have relevant photos and videos even if those friends don’t currently use the app. It uses artificial intelligence and passive data to understand which albums have relevant photos accessible from friends via data sources derived from Facebook, phone book, face detection and other photo metadata. The app then groups and highlights relevant images from shared moments to create a complete album.

In conversation with FoneArena, Shoto Founder and CEO Shoto Sachin Dev Duggal who is based in San Francisco shared that the idea for the app was sparked 3 years ago during a road trip. He and his team have spent the last 3 years trying to solve the problem of photo sharing and discovery. Sachin added that there is a lot of interest in seeing photos friends have taken and that they have over 200 million photos currently on the Shoto network from over 160 countries. The app has recently added support for videos as well. The Shoto team is based in San Francisco and Gurgaon.

Shoto – Android and iOS

With inputs from Varun Krishnan


Author: Sneha Bokil

Sneha Bokil is a tech enthusiast and is currently using OnePlus 3T but she still treasures her Nokia N70 (M). You can follow her on Twitter @snehabokil and on Google+