Chat Books





With the passing of Thanksgiving, and the upcoming holiday season, I'm sure many of us are finding plenty of reasons to take pictures; most likely with our phone.  I recently found out about a free app called Chat Books which allows you to upload pictures and print off picture books.  When I originally heard about it, it was specifically for Instagram pictures.  However, you can actually upload pictures from your camera roll as well.  The reason I loved this concept was that because so many of our pictures, ok all of our pictures, come from the phone, you don't have to worry about the hassle of uploading from your phone to your computer, and then to an additional website. 

In May, and then again in August we traveled to visit my grandparents in Indiana.  I snapped tons of pictures and they were just sitting on my phone. Although they were uploaded to Facebook, because you know what they say, if it isn't on Facebook, it didn't happen.  But, I also knew my grandparents would love a hard copy to look at. It was really such a breeze to do this:.

There are currently two options for ordering Chat books. You can do a series, which allows them to access your photos from Instagram, Facebook, or you Favorites on your phone. Every picture from those databases is automatically uploaded to Chat books and every 60 pages prints off as an additional volume.  You are notified 3 days before the book prints and you can manually edit the album, including removing pictures, because, we all have had our kids taken embarrassing photos of ourselves, right? Or is it just me...anyway, the cost is cheap-$8 a book!  

The other option that I love is the custom book which allows you to access your photos from Instagram, Facebook, Google Photos or from your camera roll. You choose exactly which pictures you want and add captions.  What is really cool is that the date is included with each picture.  In this book you can have 60-365 pictures.  The price for this book ranges from $8 for the first 30 pages, and then becomes $1 for each 10 pages.  I was able to print around 120 pictures for about $25 a book.  Unfortunately I too hastily shipped them out to their final destination so I can't share my own pictures, but when I do it again, I'll be sure to share!

The pros-it's so simple, and since it can be done all from your phone, you can do it on the go, during lunch, or even in a boring meeting, but I wouldn't know about that! 
The cons-although the price is within the ballpark, it's actually cheaper than Costco, this is one of those cases where you get what you pay for.  The books are small-6x6,  but it didn't bother me because we know all things mini are adorable.  The other con I had was the that quality of the picture was very grainy.  The picture is still definitely clear enough to be worth the purchase and convenience, but you can definitely tell a difference in the quality of the printing and the pages.  

All in all, I would definitely do this again! 

*Chat Books has no idea who I am, other than my billing information ;)

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