Hi all, first time posting here. You lot seem like a fair and constructive group 😊! I've been building in private but it's nice to change that I think.
I'm a mum and a full-time data analyst, so I'm busy all the time. I was trying to print photos of my toddler to put in albums, wanting that classic "handwritten date and age on the back" like my Nan used to do. But scrolling through my camera roll to find the right pics and calculating baby's age manually was a huge job. I ended up writing a quick python script (exporting to csv) to automate it.
Then I thought, why not put that info on the photo and save me the legwork entirely? So I built something that has evolved into smallstories (https://www.yoursmallstories.com)
How it works:
Local Processing: It reads EXIF metadata to get the date/age/location, all processing done in browser. No photos are uploaded to a server. We do have GPS going to OpenCage and Nominatim for reverse geoencoding but they only see the coordinates in isolation, not the photo itself.
Privacy First: I keep my child off social media, and I know many parents feel the same. No AI and no one sees or stores the photos.
Cost Effective: Instead of expensive, time consuming photo books that force you to connect your entire cloud library, you get photobook-quality prints with the story right there automatically. Saves time and then you can then print them cheaply yourself (no delivery markups).
I need your feedback please. I'm pre-launch and worried about two things:
Performance:
Does the tool feel like it works well on your device? (Especially on mobile/tablets where parents are likely to use it).
Did it load fast on your phone/desktop?
Any bugs or weird display issues? (I'm sure there are and I'm trying to find them 🔍)
Clarity: Does the landing page explain the value clearly? Is the privacy angle clear?
Many thanks! 🙏🙏🙏