Snap and Share Kids Cam Review

Snap and Share Kids Cam is an interesting app which aids young children in taking photos and emailing them to friends and family. Very easy to use once this app is set up, children as young as three are able to take a photo, review their image and choose a friend or family member with the click of a finger.

I take a lot of photos of my son, who will also now ask me to take a snapshot many times of things he finds amusing, sometimes asking me to email them to family members. This app easily allows a child his age to take and send photos himself, as this app is very simple to use and contains nice spoken prompts explaining each event leading up to the emailing of photos. So easy to use in fact, that I plan to use it myself as this application is surely quicker than taking a picture, finding it on the camera roll, tapping to email, typing the recipient's email address and tapping again to send the email on its way.

I did, however, find that setting this app up the first time was tricky to configure, quickly handing my phone off to my technically knowledgeable husband to fill in the blanks that ask for such information as host name and user name, the option of having the SSL on or off, and a question about a Server Port. I don’t think I would have gotten to the easy part of this app without help.

I do wish there was an “about” page explaining what these questions and options mean in order to educate adults, such as explaining that the host name will most likely be smtp.hotmail/yahoo./msn.com etc. depending on what email one is using, and that the user name is the email address used before the @hotmail.com or the like - at least this is what we are doing, and the SSL has to do with if the outgoing email is encrypted, a function of some email services. I still don’t know what the Server Port is, and I don’t think my husband changed it from the default. Looking back with hindsight, these questions don’t seem at all difficult to understand or complete, but at the time, I was frustrated that this app did not offer the simple information that my husband explained to me as he filled in these blanks.

I was able to figure out myself the other options offered within this app, as Image Setting is also included, as well as the adding of contacts to this app.

Image setting has the choice of sending small, medium, or large images, the option to save the image to one’s camera roll and the ability to “carbon copy” the image to one’s own email. A choice to use the rear or forward-facing camera is also an option, something that interests me as my son enjoys taking self-portraits of funny faces with my camera - images well worth passing on.

I also like that here the image-taking is simplified with a single button available to tap, as one does not need to worry about changing to video mode by accident, or by mistakenly tapping to swing the camera to the opposite side one is looking for, messing with the flash or the choice of HDF as happy fingers explore the camera functions of the iPhone without this app. I do wish, however, that this app had its own camera roll so that kids could see the images they have taken and sent without leaving this app. I would find this especially helpful as I get anxious with my son scrolling through the camera roll on my phone for fear of him deleting something.

Creating contacts for this app, although a little time-consuming, is not difficult. There is space here for a contact list of six people, nicely displayed with photos one will choose, allowing kids to email based on recognizing familiar faces. Whether taking a photo with this app or finding one from the camera roll, adding images is easy, but the cropping with the pinch or spread movements of fingers did not work well for me because when I got the photo the correct size, releasing my fingers often brought the image back to the original image I began with. Although annoying, I was able to find photos to use without too much trouble, making this issue not very important.

I think children will get a huge kick out of the new-found freedom to email images on their own, but I wish one could lock some of these contacts for when the child is simply goofing off, as many adults don’t really their in boxes flooded with multiple blurry images, and although I like the idea of allowing my son to be able to email his grand parents, I would like to avoid the inevitable hundreds of junk photos sent to them if my son had access to this app when he is alone with my phone. As a mom, I am ok with deleting many unwanted photos from my or my husband's email if I need, to but I want to spare others this fate.

It would also be nice if one were given a heads-up if the Airplane mode is on as the photos can’t be sent without a connection, and if possible, it would be nice that if on Airplane mode, the images to be sent would be saved and emailed when a connection was made in the future, as I commonly give my phone to my son with Airplane on for a number of reasons.

I also like the idea of having the option of a delay in the true sending of these photos until parents can look at and edit the images for their peace of mind if they wish, possibly with each contact having a more extensive list of sending options, such as choosing a delay for child contacts uploaded onto this app before the images are sent, but not bothering with a delay for mom or dad.

All in all, I do think this app is a very good way to allow kids to email on their own. It certainly makes the process easier, even for adults.