SNAPP Guides App Review

SNAPP Guides have one aim - to help you get the best out of your photoshoots. The company has created an app, through which you can buy location guides for places all over the world. Each guide features detailed, in-depth information about the area you are going to and allows you to see where the most photographic points are on a map, as well as showing you stunning shots from each to help you decide. Each destination point also details the ideal condition and when to go there for the best results. 

ePHOTOzine took a trip to the Lake District with the app to test it out. 

SNAPP Guides App Features

The SNAPP Guides app is available for both Android and iOS devices. To set up an account you just need your email address and a password, and once in you can browse the guides on offer through the 'Featured' 'Free' and 'All' tabs. These are presented in alphabetical order. 

SNAPP Guides are always creating new guides so the list gets updated regularly. Guides are priced between £4 - £13 depending on area. SNAPP Guides has taken the traditional guidebook on an area on condensed it into an app, which gives you interactivity as well as having to carry less on a trip. 

Key Features

• Guides to a specific area of the world
• Expert advice on locations
• Map feature with all locations for that area 
• Stunning images of all spots listed 
• In depth guide to each location, how to get there, best times of day and much more
• Free to download (Guides are paid for though there are some free ones to get you started)

SNAPP Guides App Handling & Performance

The app is clean, smooth and easy to use.  Clicking on the hamburger (menu) symbol to the top left of the screen brings up the menu. From here you can navigate to the shop to buy more guides, browse your guides, look at your assigned favourite guides as well as provide feedback and adjust the temperature/distance measurements in settings.

The home screen features 4 options - 'featured', 'free', 'all' and 'my'. Tapping on 'my' takes you to all the guides you have bought. Tapping on either 'featured' or 'all' is where you need to start if you want to buy a guide. Scroll down the list until you find one you like the look of, clicking on it will allow you to see a preview of the guide and then you can tap 'buy it now' to proceed to payment and buy the guide. Once bought, guides can be downloaded to your device via Wi-Fi so that you don't have to be online to used them - handy if you'll be heading off to remote places or abroad where using excessive data will be a problem. 

Once you have a guide - we used the Lake District one and headed up there for a short break to test it out - you'll be able to access and use it. Tapping the guide from the 'my' tab will open it up as below:

You can scroll through some of the stunning images taken in your location be swiping left on the large, beautiful photo that will greet you. There are 5 options along the bottom of the screen that give you access to the elements of the guide. Tapping 'Spots' brings up a scrolling menu of all the photographic spots listed in the guide along with an inspiring photo for each and the distance away from your current location. From there you can click on the target or the coordinates and you will be taken to the spot on Google or Apple maps to help you navigate there. There is also an icon to the left which looks like a man bending over a tripod with a globe in the background. Tapping this will open The Photographer's Ephermis, TPE for short which allows you to see how light falls on the land at that spot.  

'Map' brings up a map of the area, with dropped pins where all the points of interest are. You can pinch to zoom in or out of the map as necessary. Tapping on one of them takes the scroller at the bottom of the page to that spot. You can then tap the scroller box for that place to be taken to the information page for that spot. If you're not sure where you want to go, the great thing about the map is that it works both ways - scrolling through the spots at the bottom of the map highlights where they are by turning the pin drop blue, allowing you to easily distinguish where it is. 

You can mark locations as favourites, and when you do this you'll be able to find them all in the 'Favourites' tab. Tapping 'About' brings up a general write up about the area and the places within it that make it special. 'Author' tells you a bit about the photographer that's put this guide toegether. 

At the top of the map are 3 symbols - a man, a car and the ability to toggle satellite mode on and off. Once you have found a spot that you are interested in you can click on the man or the car and the app will plot either a walking (man) or vehicular (car) route to get you to the location. Now, you'll want to visit the information page for your spot. 

Once on the page for your chosen location you can scroll down to see information such as what's great to shoot there, the best times of the year to go,  the best conditions for shooting there (sunrise/sunset, cloudy, at night etc), how physical it is to get there and parking references. The physical rating is given out of 5, with 1 a light stroll and 5 being a serious hike. 

If the destination becomes a favourite of yours, you can tap the heart symbol at the top right of the spot page to assign it to your favourites list. 

I was lucky enough to have a break booked in the Lake District, and here are some of the images I captured with the help of the SNAPP guides app for destination inspiration: 

SNAPP Guides Sample Photos

The app was tested and photos were taken with the HTC U11. 

Value For Money

The SNAPP Guides app itself is free to download, which is great, and the guides do vary in price depending on which one you want to go for. Some are vast areas and some focus only on a city - so there's something for everyone. 

The most sensible comparison for this app would be purchasing a physical photographic guidebook for the area in question, which in a lot of cases would be more expensive. Plus, you'd have to carry the guidebook with you. With this in mind, the Lake District guide seems reasonably priced for the amount of information you get access to. 

The guides which you pay for vary in price from around £4 to around £12, depending on the guide you buy. However, this is most likely still cheaper than buying a physical guidebook in most cases.

SNAPP Guides App Verdict

Overall, SNAPP guides have provided a stable and very usable platform for photography explorers both amateur and more experienced alike. As long as you have a decent smartphone, the guides give you the confidence to head out and know you're going to a stunning photographic location without being weighed down. It also allows you to make decisions on the fly and navigate easily to locations. 

The only drawbacks here are the obvious ones - if there's not a guide available for where you're planning to go, then the app is pretty useless. It's also pretty essential to download the guides to your phone, otherwise you need a good strong internet connection for everything to run smoothly. Making sure your phone is charged and that you have a backup charger will also be a good idea. 

If there is a guide available for your destination, and check back regularly as new guides are uploaded quite often, the app provides a more interactive and slimlined way for photographers to find key photographic destinations in specific locations, and on this basis we are happy to highly recommend it.  

SNAPP guides offer a great way to get to know a location and find the best spots without the use of a traditional guidebook.