Digitally capturing an event can be a daunting experience. You can tweet it, Instagram it, and post video clips on Google+ and Facebook. But you get only one point of view — yours. Sure, you can check all your friends' feeds, but that takes a lot of work.
The new app Moment.Me collects your friends' posts around the same event by looking at the place and time, adds them to yours, and puts them all in one beautifully organized "moment." Think of it as a friend-sourced Instagram , but instead of viewing one photo at a time, you're looking at sets of content from a particular event or moment.
Why we like it
Automation is the best part of Moment.me; after all, who wants to manage yet another social network? The app works with the networks you already use. While there are a number of social media aggregators out there, only Moment.me is focused on events and pulling content from you and your friends. Here are four big reasons that make Moment.me appealing:
Hands-off: Once you've connected your social networks with Moment.Me, a process that takes less than three minutes, any activity that you capture by photo, video or tweet becomes an open moment, meaning Moment.me will begin looking for related posts from friends. When a friend posts a photo, a tweet or other info from the same event, it's added to your moment. There are no limits to the number of contributors or the pieces of history that make up each moment.
Intuitive: The layout is very similar to Instagram. You have three streams to choose from: your feed that contains your moments and those from friends, "discover" to see trending moments and those nearby, and "Me" where you can see just your moments and a list of friends that was imported when you connected Moment.me.
Simple navigation: Moment.me shows your moments in slightly uneven stacks of Polaroid-type photos. Tap to spread out the stack in varying sized boxes, similar to Instagram. Want to try a different arrangement? Tap the refresh icon in the top right corner.
Easy sharing: Once you're in a moment, tap the familiar arrow icon to share a moment to Facebook , Twitter or through email. Recipients see a link to the moment that can be viewed on Moment.Me.
Keep in mind
Moment.me takes patience. It's not a live stream — at least not yet. The creators of the app are working on reducing the time it takes to organize moments and post them to users' feeds. But for now, users may have to wait up to a day or two for their moments to be created.
You also have no control over what items are added to a moment. Moment.me doesn't rely on hashtags, but rather on location and time. If it misses a post you made, you're out of luck.
Bottom line
There's what feels like a bit of magic in the creation of moments. Event titles can take you by surprise when they include a friend's name, or you may see photos from some part of an event that you missed. In today's social media whirl, it's pretty great to have an app that organizes everything for you even, if it's not always perfect.
Key specs
Pulls in content from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+
Available for iOS devices only (Android app is in the works), but those without an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch can use the Web version of Moment.me.
Free
