There's no shortage of Snapchat competitors in Apple's App Store, but although many of these apps are more elegantly designed than the original, they often fail to gain traction with users who are reluctant to switch to a new platform if their friends aren't on it.
Camoji, a new Snapchat-like app for sharing animated GIF selfies, avoids this hurdle by taking advantage of a platform that its iPhone users are already a part of: iMessage.
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Camoji relies solely on iMessage, which has native support for GIFs baked in. The free app is surprisingly simple, and works seamlessly with iMessage. There is no on-boarding process -- no account to create, no phone-number verification necessary.
Camoji opens with the camera; it defaults to the front-facing camera, but can be switched with a swipe. Hold down on the screen to begin recording a video selfie, and when you're done, it appears on your screen in GIF form. The app is completely gesture-based: Swipe left to delete and start over, and swipe right to share your video to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or via a custom URL. A swipe up opens iMessage, with the GIF copied in the message field.
"iMessage is already a great distribution channel," Austin Broyles, one of the app's creators told FastCompany. "Everyone is already on it. With the images animating inline, it just creates a 'wow' magical experience."
The drawback of iMessage is, of course, you can't text GIFs to friends who don't have an iPhone. But it does have a workaround that allows you to share with friends who don't have iMessage using its URL-sharing option; this creates a link to your GIF that can be viewed by anyone who opens it.