It’s easier more than ever to save snapshots of priceless family time spent together. Thanks to smartphones, your camera and video camera are almost always within reach, ready to capture moments and your new favorite memories.
But once you have those moments captured, what do you do with them? Here are 6 apps for creating, printing, and sharing your favorite family memories, perfect for giving as gifts or just keeping faraway loved ones up-to-date with a tap of your finger.
1. EveryStory
Tell your family’s story in your own words — and with your own voice! — with everyStory. This free app records your voice over a slideshow of the photos on your device, so you can talk about the fun trip you took to Disneyland or share stories of your family history that won’t be forgotten. Stories are private, shared only with the people you choose to add.
Different narrators can take a turn in the story, so your voices create a shared memory that you can listen to time again and again.
Free, iPhone/iPad, Android
2. Postagram
On vacation with the kids and you don’t know want spend time finding the perfect postcard, much less deal with the hassle of stamps and locating a mailbox? Postagram to the rescue! Make a unique postcard in seconds that can be mailed anywhere in the world for less than $2. Choose your photo, select a recipient from your contact list, and a real postcard with a pop-out photo is sent on its way.
Free (with in-app purchases), iPhone/iPad, Android
3. Recently
One tap of your finger turns of a month of smartphone photos into a glossy magazine all about your day-to-day life. Rather than spending hours uploading and dragging the pictures your kids’ recital or school play into a photo book web site, Recently simply imports all of your recent photos and arranges them for you for a unique keepsake.
The free app, which requires a subscription (but no additional printing costs or tax), uses a simple interface to allow you to remove any unwanted pictures to make your book look exactly how you’d like.
Free (with subscription), iPhone/iPad
4. Steller
Tell your family’s unique story with Steller. This is a social media app that combines your device’s photos and videos with a story you write about your latest family vacation, birthday party, or holiday. The gorgeous layouts look like a virtual coffee table book starring you and your family, and you can share them on Facebook and your other social media.
Privacy settings easily allow you to share your story with just the people you choose, so strangers browsing through your family’s Christmas morning isn’t a concern. There’s also a great community sharing their stories and photos from around the world, ideal for taking a moment to stop and appreciate the beautiful world around us.
Free, iPhone/iPad
5. Tinybeans
Tinybeans combines a baby journal with milestone tracking to keep all of your kids’ most important details in one place as they grow from baby to big kid. Each day you can enter photos, videos, and milestones, and share them on Facebook or just the few people who love hearing about both the big and little moments in your kids’ daily lives. The app even includes helpful parenting tips and articles.
Tinybeans also offers photobook printing to turn your virtual baby journal into one you can flip through time and time again.
Free (with optional subscription), iPhone/iPad, Android
6. Tweekaboo
For pregnancy to birth and beyond, Tweekaboo is a journal app for parents who don’t have time to make a baby book for every kid in the family. Create a one-of-a-kind timeline for your favorite photos and videos of your kids. You can choose who to share it with, with the option to send close friends and family members email updates about the latest happenings in your family’s busy lives.
Once your photos are collected, just a few taps creates that baby book in almost no time at all.
Free (with in-app purchases), iPhone/iPad
