Perhaps one of the best parts about the realm of apps is the reconnection to so many things we are nostalgic for. I fondly remember the day when I first discovered the Invadroid game which is a pocket version of the Japanese arcade shooter classic, Space Invaders, created in 1978. I joyfully decimated waves of aliens with a childlike vigor, and I maybe almost crashed my car once as I was devilishly proclaiming myself the “Laser Queen” while nearing a red light. Anyways, I digress; the point is apps can help us revisit not only ideas of the past, but also our inner youth, wonder, and imagination. Postagram is one of these sentimental revivals, because who didn’t become overcome with a tooth-bearing grin upon receiving a postcard in the mail?
Created by Sincerely, the people behind the New York Times’ featured app PopBooth, they understand the reminiscence we have towards photo keepsakes of the past. I remember spinning postcard racks of faraway places while on family vacation as a child, and I remember opening the mailbox to find a postcard from my childhood friends vacationing with their own families. I remember feeling happy because of it. But the postcard has seen better days. Surely it is a tradition that has been on the steady decline since email and social media channels became our default mode of photo sharing and long distance communication.
When you download Postagram, it automatically imports your entire photo gallery. It then gives you options to sync up with your Instagram and Facebook accounts to have full access to your online picture databases in addition to the phone’s internal galleries–it even has a camera button that takes you directly to your camera. All you have to do is pick your photo, add an avatar & personal message if desired, add your recipient’s address (and then saves all your addresses into a dropdown for future easy sending), enter your payment (only .90c) and boom! Postcard is en route, in less than 1 minute.
The postcard is back thanks to a genius fusion of technology and tradition symbiotically working together to keep the institution of photo mail alive during a digital age. And, honestly, I think it is a beautiful thing.