PHHHOTO 1.4.2

How do you even pronounce the name of this app? "PHHHOTO." Is it that hard to find an original name these days that we have to resort to things that make no sense?

I kid. It really doesn’t matter how the app is called, and it doesn’t pain anyone to just hit that “f” a little stronger. While the name makes little to no sense, the product itself is more than relevant. It’s actually one of the best I’ve seen in this category.

Mandatory account creation (+ phone number)

It begins with a prompt to punch in your phone number and create a user name and password to get your account rolling. It’s not ideal, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend giving your phone number to parties you know nothing about, but it’s my job to test these things so what the heck. Plus, the cyan font was ever so inviting.

Speaking of the color palette, PHHHOTO is just black, white and cyan. The UI is very relaxing to the eye thanks to the dark background. The app’s icon is like something out of that TRON movie. And despite the hurdles involving the setup, you’ll be up and running with PHHHOTO in about a minute.

Amazingly fun GIF creation

According to HYPERHYPER (even the dev’s name is strange), PHHHOTO “shoots instant, moving pictures you can share with all your friends.” In short, GIFs. What are these good for? No one really knows for sure, but they’re pretty slick. Whatever you capture with PHHHOTOT’s four frames per second, it’s bound to look daunting or downright hilarious.

iOS 8 users can manually adjust the exposure and focus on their cameras, which gives them more control over how their pictures are taken.Thanks to the push notifications area on iOS 8, you’ll be able to follow back the users who follow you, straight from this new area, without having to launch the app.

Socially crippled

Either PHHHOTO is very new or no one seems to like it except me and a few dozen people named Alex, which I found using the search function, because none of my Facebook and Twitter friends ever heard of this service. Yes, the social aspect is almost inexistent, at least for now. Which is a shame, because it’s awesome!

Also, the only way to socialize inside PHHHOTO is to have a Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr account.The app will even notify users when their Facebook friends join the app and you’ll even get a chance to follow their profiles. As for other social features, you can use hashtags when sharing pictures and mention others with the help of the username auto-complete feature.

Bigger HD means that your photos are now displayed bigger and better than ever. Even though this usually means the device will get a kick in the shins when it comes to speeds, this doesn’t seem to be the case for PHHHOTO.

There’s also a pretty nifty stabilization button that should help everyone trying to take a picture with shaky hands.

Your profile is a GIF in and of itself

My best moving photo taken with PHHHOTO (man it sounds daft...) is actually the picture I took for my account creation. Hence the username, “crazyperson.” See the screenshots.

Anyway, that’s PHHHOTO for you. I’ll stop here because I can’t call this app by its name anymore.

Add to watchlist:

GIF makerFiltersCinemagraphCamera

• Seene 2.0.7
• Camoji 2.0
• POMELO 1.5.1
• Camera plus 6.2
• Picturelife 3.1.2
• Photo Editor by Aviary 3.6.1
• Photo Grid 3.9.2