It grew from an idea hatched on a hiking tour of Nepal, and now 7Moments, a photo sharing platform where privacy is paramount, has finally been launched. The brainchild of Stefan Kellner, Markus Angermeier and David Linner, the Berlin-based service promises to give users the ability to exchange photos in an easy and natural way on the Web and on mobile.
Silicon Allee had a sneak peak at 7Moments in January – and we were impressed with the user experience and all-round look even back then. Now the founders hope it will set a new standard for enhanced privacy in photo sharing.
The premise is simple – create an album and share it with selected friends who can upload, comment and rate photos. “Every album is a tiny social network,” said Markus. “Share one album with your family, one with your friends, one with your partner.”
There is no profile and no way to make the photos public, or even, for example, importing snaps from a private Facebook album to which you have been given access. Stefan said: “Millions of people are in search of a solution to privately share moments with their friends and family. 7Moments exactly delivers that.”
The Berlin-based startup came about when Stefan went on a trekking tour of Nepal at the beginning of 2011. The group of people on the trip, strangers to begin with, soon became friends and wanted an easy way to exchange all their photos at the end. As Stefan, who helped launch foursquare forerunner Plazes, told Silicon Allee earlier this year: “The group was very heterogeneous; there were old people, young people, even people who didn’t own a computer whilst having a digital camera. I said, ‘hey, I’m the Internet guy, I’ll take care of this when I’m back in Germany.’ When I returned home, I was sitting at my computer and trying to find a solution, and I couldn’t find one. I thought about this for a couple of weeks, and then I made the decision: Let’s just build this.”
And build it they have – 7Moments is now available on the Web and on iOS. Fellow co-founder David Linner said: “7Moments allows you to share with the people that really count, not with your 400 friends on Facebook, of which many you might (have) never met.”
