Microsoft has released a new tool that lets you choose photos from your phone to create a slideshow that you can share with friends. There are a few special things about the slideshows you make with the Microsoft Xim app.
First, everyone viewing the slideshow on their mobile phone will see the same pictures at the same time. If one person swipes, pans, or zooms, everyone will see the same actions on their device.
Second, only one person needs to actually have the app installed on their device.
That’s because Xim lets you upload your photos to the cloud and then choose friends to share the images with. They’ll receive an SMS or email message with a link to a website where the slideshow is hosted.
After about an hour, the images will disappear. The idea isn’t to create a permanent slideshow, but to share photos with friends in real-time.
You can select between 1 and 50 photos from your camera roll or from cloud services such as Dropbox, Facebook, or Instagram. If the people sharing your Xim have the app installed, they can also add their own photos to your slideshow.
Xim is currently available as a free download for Windows Phone or Android. An iOS app is also on the way.