Cinemagram app targets gamers
Cinemagram app

Cinemagram creates animated gifs that are perfect for mobile sharing. Can it be a success?

Photography apps are a hit on mobile platforms. The new hype is Cinemagram, a free iOS app available to iPhone 5 owners that creates animated frames called “cines”. The app is rumored to be coming out on Android too. Windows Phone powered Nokia Lumia 920 has it and app’s release on the Lumia 900 is also imminent.

Cinemagram also allows users pre-made filters, just like Instagram does, and it is also able to apply effects to clips before the animation.

The app creates a gif file that the company labels “part-photo and part-video.” Everyone must have met the funny animated pictures that flood social media sites such as Tumblr. Technically they are animated gifs (GIF = Graphics Interchange Format), made up of frames that are displayed in succession. The format, introduced by Compuserve in 1987, supports 256 distinct colors.

Andre Charoo, head of partnerships at Cinemagram has recently stated: “Cinemagram has become a fun way for people to capture and share special moments of their lives. Users are sharing these moments by simply capturing two-second video clips that we’ve re-created in a format that’s perfect for quick mobile consumption.”

So, how can this new hype be used in online gambling? We can imagine someone making and animated picture of their winning hand at blackjack or poker and sharing it with the world.

Apart from player pictures from games, these animated gifs can be well used in a blackjack tutorial or other card game lessons.

But the big gamble for the developers is: Who is going to buy up Cinemagram? Facebook paid an amazing $1 billion for Instagram, the massively popular iOS app that featured vintage-looking filters and easy-to-use social media sharing. Cinemagram might have a bit of a problem here, as the Facebook wall does not (yet) support animated gifs. We are sure they will work something out.