Loopcam, a gif-making success since its launch last year, has launched its API in a bid to create a global infrastructure and community for gif loops. The API will help users find loops through keywords and will present information about a particular loop, while third party gifs can also be uploaded.
The iOS update, meanwhile, has just been approved by Apple, and will be available to users from this weekend. Having already been showcased at Berlin’s photo hack day, the updated app will now be integrated with Facebook, and users can find basic information about a user – whose loops they are following, and who follows them.
Founder Tor Rauden Källstigen said. “Loopcam is about a new way to express your feelings and everyday situations. We’re doing loops which is a super simple take on stop motion animations. It’s faster to consume and shoot than video, and far more funny, interesting and viral than just another filtered photo.”
The free app started out as a hack in Stockholm last year, and the company has since moved to Berlin. Loopcam is funded by Passion Capital as well as a syndicate of angel investors including Zoe Adamovicz of Xyologic, Felix Petersen of Amen, and Peter Read and Eric Wahlforss of SoundCloud.
It may be a new space but there is already plenty of competition, with Cinemagram founded this year and GifBoom in 2011. Tor said: “The idea of putting the two decades old gif format to new work has been around for a while. But it’s about timing and technical circumstances, and last summer felt like a good starting point.”
Some of the more interesting gifs already on Loopcam include loops of Tor’s worldwide travels, while those of everyday life in North Korea are particularly eye-catching.