PhotoWall+ is a nifty AppleTV 4 app from Boinx Software. The $4.99 app sits on your AppleTV waiting for your guests to snap some photos, and they appear in a couple of seconds on your big screen.
For all this to work, your guests need to download a free companion app called PhotoWall+Cam.
They snap away while at your home, then press a single button and off the photo goes to your big screen attached to your AppleTV 4. Any iOS device will do the trick, so iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
The host, (you) can set up a number of galleries for the photos to appear, so you can set one for ‘dinner’ and another for ‘around the tree’ for example.
All the photos taken will be in your iCloud account, so easy to get and share when the party is over.
Of course the app is not restricted to holiday parties; I could see a use at weddings, any family gathering like a birthday party, or just a get-together of friends.
The key is everyone has to be on the same WiFi network. You could also take the AppleTV 4 with you to some other venue, as long as everyone can get on whatever WiF network is present.
I tried the app on my AppleTV 4, and downloaded the companion app on my iPhone and iPad. Everything worked as expected. Photos appeared in literally a few seconds. The app on your TV gives you the ability to label the galleries, and make a few simple choices about the displayed theme.
You get the iOS app at the link I provided above. I can’t give you a link to the AppleTV app store (Apple- find a way) but just do a search and it will pop up.
PhotoWall+ is a pretty unique idea for an app, and with the holiday crush approaching it seems like a fun way to spend a buck. Of course your friends on Android are cut out, but frankly, I don’t have many friends on Android.
I really don’t see any negatives to this app except one. There’s no way to curate the photos. I guess some rowdy teenagers could get raunch and post some offensive photos for all your guests to see.
I think that’s a pretty minimal worry, so if you have the new AppleTV4 and are doing some entertaining, PhotoWall+ seems like an obvious and worthwhile purchase.
