CamMe Photo App for iOS Helps You Take Better ‘Selfies’

Heads up to all the “Selfies” out there (you know who you are): You might want to check out CamMe.

CamMe is a free iPhone/iPad app that does one thing—it helps Selfies” take self portraits at a distance. And it works well. You just open the camera app, prop your device up and stand back at distance of two to 10 feet. Then you raise your hand until the app recognizes the gesture and close it into a fist. Your fist trigger the app’s three-second timer, and it captures a self portrait.

Of course, you can also take a self portrait by holding the camera. But if you want several people in the picture with you and nobody’s around to take it, CamMe does the trick. I didn’t test it in broad daylight, but I suspect you’d have trouble with the app in those surroundings because you won’t be able to see your device’s display very well.

CamMe only takes pictures, and it doesn’t come with image filters or effects. You also have to use the lower-res front-facing camera on your iDevice. CamMe technically allows you to take a self-portrait using the rear-facing camera, but you have to position your device close to a mirror to make it work. And you can’t view your photos within CamMe; you have to open the Photos or Camera app on your iDevice.

In my tests, CamMe worked well. It recognized my hand gestures nearly every time I used it. I didn’t test the app (yet) with a large group of friends in dark lighting, however.

CamMe isn’t the only self-timing iOS camera app. Other options include Self Timer ($1) and TimerCam (free). But those apps use pre-selected countdowns to take your photo while CamMe uses clever hand gestures. One option I like for Android is Camera Zoom FX ($3), which uses voice activation to snap a selfie. 

(Screen shot by PointGrab)