How is Togethera 38x faster at photo sharing than Facebook?

At Togethera (the private social network for your family), we’re fanatical about making photo sharing as fast as possible. Here’s how we compare to WhatsApp and Facebook:

(All demos recorded on the same Wi-Fi connection)

So how are we so much faster than WhatsApp and Facebook?

We tested sharing 10 photos, and recorded the time between pressing ‘Post/Send’ and the entire post successfully uploading. On Togethera it took 0.6 secs, vs 7.8 secs on WhatsApp and 23.1 secs on Facebook. How?

1. We start uploading photos as soon as you tap them in the gallery (inspired by Instagram who upload as soon as you’ve chosen your filter).
2. We use parallel concurrent upload queues so we’re uploading multiple photos at once (rather than waiting for photo 1 to upload before starting photo 2).
3. For the initial upload, we use a medium resolution photo (around the same as WhatsApp).
4. This means that by the time you press ‘Post’, all your photos have usually uploaded already, and we just need to send the request to put them all into a post to your group(s). It’s basically instant.

What about full-resolution photos?

1. Next time you’re on Wi-Fi after you’ve posted, which may be immediately, we start uploading the original uncompressed photos in the background (the final downloadable photo from WhatsApp is compressed to 35% of the original file size, Facebook is 20% of the original).
2. The full-res photos mean you can order photo prints (launching very soon!) and auto-backup all your originals to Dropbox.

How else do we differ?

Lots of ways. But from a photo upload perspective:

• Togethera Premium users can upload up to 100 photos per post (WhatsApp limits you to 10, Facebook limits you to 40 on mobile).
• Share to multiple groups: You can share 100 of this weekend’s photos with your family, your partner’s family and your close friends in 3 separate groups, all at once.

How do you get it?

You can download Togethera for iOS or Togethera for Android, or visit Togethera.com.

We’re raising a crowdfunding round

In case you’re interested, we’re raising a crowdfunding round on Crowdcube. Check it out!