Elsie Larson

Party Party App Q&A

It's hard to really express how thankful we have felt this past week. Your response to our new app, Party Party, has been incredible!

This app was a huge step for us because we didn't know if the success of the A Beautiful Mess App was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. We were nervous. With Party Party we spent another nine months (that seems to be our magic number) wondering how it would be received, if you guys would be as excited about stop-motion as we were, and if apps would become a bigger part of our business future.

You guys! Party Party went to #1 in the app store on the first day! This isn't something we expected at all, and when it actually happened we were all in the office hugging and screaming and celebrating. It was such a happy moment, one we will never forget.

Thank you so much for your support and encouragement! We are committed to bringing you great apps, and we're already hard at work on the next updates to make them even better.

This past week we've answered a ton of questions through social media and support emails. We thought it would be good to post our most common FAQs so that they are easy to find. We hope this clears up a lot of your questions!

How do I get my app to stop giving me an error message when I try to export? (error code 3310)
When you first open the app, it asks to have access to your photo library. The app needs that just to save the files you create with Party Party to your phone—not anything weird. Otherwise, it doesn’t have anywhere to save. So if you hit “no” to that prompt, just go to your phone’s Settings > Privacy > Photos. Then find Party Party and slide it to on (green).

What do I do if the app is getting really draggy and starting to freeze?
Though the app is pretty simple and straightforward in what it does, video processing is pretty heavy lifting for a phone. So there’s a whole lot going on in the background. If the app is left open for too long, sometimes we’ve seen it start to drag. So we recommend to try to export whatever you’re doing and want to save as soon as possible. Then restart the app. If you’ve got a big, time-consuming idea for the app, we recommend restarting the app at the beginning.

Will the app ever allow me to import photos from my photo library?
Yes! We launched without it, because we wanted users to get comfortable and used to taking pictures in the moment. We wanted more of a photo booth app than a slideshow or collage app. That said, we’re already in the works of putting together an intuitive import feature that we’re hoping to unroll in the next couple months. So stay tuned!

Do you think you’ll add the capability to add music?
Our goal with the stop-motion feature is to give you the opportunity to bring the looping gif effect to Instagram. So music can really complicate the user experience, as the length of the video isn’t determined until export. That said, if you’d like to add music to your video loop, there’s an app called VideoSound that can do exactly that!

Will there be a way to delete a bad photo and replace it?
Yep, it will be in the same update that allows importing!

Why won’t the gif I save loop in my camera roll?
This is an iOS thing. The iOS photo library doesn’t have the capabilities to preview the animation of a gif for some reason. But don’t worry; the file is still sound. To see the gif’s animation, you can email it, text it, save it to your computer, or upload it to compatible social media (Tumblr, Imgur, etc.).

Why does the video look a little more pixelated on Instagram?
This is an Instagram thing. In order for them to be able to play the videos as fast as they do when you’re scrolling through your feed, they downgrade the video quality based on your connection at that given moment. It’s kind of like YouTube in that respect. That said, because it’s a phone, and they want those videos to start quickly, you can guarantee the quality that Instagram plays for any video will be less than the actual quality of the video. To see the app's actual quality, you can watch the video file in your camera roll or post a gif online. We’ve noticed the farther away your subject and the faster the video loop, the more intense the pixelating in Instagram.

Tip: Don’t forget Instagram will let you choose your intro frame for your video!

Does iOS also compress the video when you text or email it?
Yep! iOS compresses videos like crazy when you text and email them. It can make them borderline unrecognizable at times. For the best results, we recommend texting and emailing the gif files instead of video. It’s a smaller file size and waaay better quality. Plus the loop never stops! If you text or email directly from the app, it will automatically create a gif for you to send.

How do you find inspiration for using the app?
The easy answer is you and your friends! Just pull your friends together and make some goofy faces. It’s NEVER disappointing. Beyond that, we love making something look like it’s moving on its own. Move your subject just a little each time, hold the phone steady, and take your pictures. Even if it's just a coffee cup spinning on its own, it still looks so cool! And if you haven’t checked the #partypartyapp on Instagram yet, we highly recommend it. You guys are coming up with some amazing ideas left and right!

What was the inspiration for the app?
We were setting out to make a photo booth app that was conducive with Instagram and current social media. Our whole team LOVES photo booths. We pile in every time we see one. We wanted that experience to be portable and easy to share. Then we’d seen some gifs online where someone had taken several photo booth photos and stacked them on top of each other. And we thought it would be so cool if there were an easy way to do that right there from your phone. And voilà!

Will the app be available for other operating systems (Android or Windows)?
We talked about Android specifically in the launch post, and it’s the same challenge across all other operating systems outside iOS. We just weren’t able to recoup our investments in other operating systems, and it’s very expensive to develop. So we don’t have any immediate plans to develop for other operating systems. But we are definitely keeping an eye on the markets and trying to find the least risky way to bring this app to as many readers as possible, as we know there are so many of you out there fully willing to support us if we can make it happen!

Quick note on settings: If you haven’t already, be sure you check out the settings in the app. It lets you switch it to manual mode, so you can take pictures at your own pace. Or you can give yourself more or less time between pictures. And you can change the countdown sounds! Have you listened to our niece Penny’s countdown yet? We melt every. Single. Time.

If you have any other questions or technical issues, send us an email at: partyparty AT redvelvetart DOT com. :)

Thank you so much for your love and support! We couldn't ask for kinder, more loyal readers!! We are so thankful for each of you who follows our crazy journey, one project at a time. We couldn't do any of this without you.

Love, Elsie Trey

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