Is 2019 going to be the year of the collage on social media?
One thing that I’m sure we have all seen popping up on our feeds more and more is the use of collages on all social media platforms. More well designed, colourful and eye catching collages are taking over our timelines and stories. These are not the cringey collages we all remember from Bebo and MySpace, these are wonderfully designed images.
These collages are proving to be very popular and grabbing a large amount of active user attention. Active user attention, is much more than just liking an image, by active users we mean, commenting and sharing too.
Why are these collages so popular?
A large amount of trends begin with with influencers, this trend is no different. Trends normally begin with people looking for new ways of expressing themselves and it gaining traction. These collages are not the ones you’d expect. These are well designed, thought-out and bespoke collages.
How are these collages made?
The unfold app is probably the most popular of the collage apps that is out at the moment. This app burst onto the screens in June of 2017, it offers a multitude of free and paid for pre-set templates that you can add your own style and photos to. It’s become so popular of recent that the app partnered up with Tommy Hilfiger to create their own presets for a new line launch. The most popular way to showcase these images from unfold is primarily on their Instagram stories. They often showcase multiple collages in a row to tell a story or to show multiple products/items.
Who is using these apps?
It’s being used by more than just the influencers.Creating a multi-image collage is a fantastic way to showcase more than one item, outfit or product in one post. Influencers and businesses are both using a mix of images and videos to create a very eye catching multi medium post.
Some brands have taken it a step further and combined these collages with another well used instagram feature, the scroll. The combination of both scrollable content with the well designed collages has proven to be very successful for both brands and influencers alike. The power of a well designed, bright and striking image is shown in the success of all these collages.
What do we think the top 3 collage apps are?
Why are these our top 3 apps? We actually use them. We shall begin with the third ranked app Tezza. The free items you are able to access are great though, but it is a very brief taster for free (you can’t see the different presets and effects that you can buy, in our opinion its doesn’t give you enough before prompting you to purchase different presets, and effects.) I’m not sure that many people will purchase the remained of the app based on the free teaser, especially for £17.99 a year or £1.79 per month.
SCRL is the app that is in second place. Instantly it feels more professional, within the free app that you get, you get 8 fully editable templates, for 4 different images (landscape, square, portrait and stories). You are able to see previews of what you are able to purchase, they are different price points as well. From £0.99 to &1.99 for different editable preset packs. The usability is fantastic as well, it’s often tap and drag, or pinch to resize, so anyone can use it easily.
Unfold is our number 1 collage app. The main factor is quality of the presets. The initial free presets are only for social media stories, but you can edit every single aspect of them. They introduce free and paid for presets every month, and often giveaway sponsored ones for free. For examples the latests one (at the time of writing this) is the 2019 Billaboard Music Awards preset, in this free back there are 14 free presets. They start from £0.99 and the most expensive ones are £1.99 but are very worth the price (15 presets for £1.99, and 10 presets for £0.99).
Many people will agreed that Unfold is the number 1 app based off of its popularity alone. Its popularity is understandable, the quality that they produce time and time again means people will return and spend the money in the app everytime a new preset pack is released.
Flooding the Market Place:
More and more of these collage apps are popping up left, right and centre, will we see its popularity come to a very abrupt stop? Trends can to start winding down once everyone has jumped on the bandwagon, so are collages time soon to be over? Increased users could just cause its popularity and user base rise even higher, it’s close to impossible to predict. Trends can last for years and years, and some can end overnight, but as we can’t see the future, we don’t know how long this will last, but while it’s here, we are enjoying it. As mentioned in our earlier paragraphs, we actually use these apps ourselves. The Cherries have been hooked by the popular images that we have seen on our our business and social feeds and we hope it continues.
If you have also been hooked in by the collage trend as well, let us know which app or apps are your favourite? If you think you know what the next trend is going to be? Let us know!
