The sole reason I nominated Giphy Cam as the App of the Week for this week is due to an illness that’s going around. It’s spread so fast and seems to respond to words like “Luke” and “Jar-Jar Binks”. Yes, I’m talking about the Star Wars fever that everyone is afflicted with.
Giphy Cam, if you haven’t guessed already, makes GIFs, and it’s insanely fun to play with. That’s probably extra true if you — like me — are typically awful at making GIFs by yourself; I once spent half an hour on Premiere Pro and After Effects trying to render out a GIF to post on Tumblr. Needless to say I’ve stopped going on Tumblr.
Giphy Cam couldn’t be much more simple. There’s no social network, no feed, no browsing. It’s literally just a camera, some filters, and a bunch of weird borders, backgrounds, and animations that you can add to your recording. Think of a minimalist Snapchat and you’ll begin to understand Giphy Cam. But what does this have to do with the Dark Side of the Force?
Giphy Cam recently got updated to feature six Star Wars filters that will only be around for a limited time period. The effects can make it look like the Millennium Falcon is soaring past your window, like you’re swinging a tiny lightsaber, like you’re chilling with BB-8, or like you’re about to hit light speed. Like most of Giphy Cam’s effects, the fun isn’t in the quality, it’s in how easy the app makes it to quickly churn out GIF after GIF and share them around.
You can download it on the Apple App Store here.
