GLMPS, a new photo sharing app for iPhone, differentiates itself from Instagram by trading filters for motion.

The app is called GLMPS [iTunes link] and like other photo sharing apps, it lets users capture an image and then share that image with their friends on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Foursquare.

What makes GLMPS different is that instead of just capturing an image, it also captures five seconds of video that precedes the shot. So instead of just sharing a static image, you can share a snippet of an actual moment.

Seeing is believing, so check out this GLMPS I made of myself enjoying my favorite beverage.







The members of the GLMPS team met each other over YouTube — a cool founder story that highlights the connective power of video and sharing life experiences as a basis for creating and building GLMPS.

Right now users can view GLMPSes in the iPhone app or via a direct web link. In the future, the GLMPS team told us they plan to allow users to create collections of GLMPS moments and then upload those collections to YouTube. Support for more publishing sources is also planned.

Although we like the idea behind the app — and firmly believe that video, like still photography, is a powerful and connective force, we do have a few questions about the app itself.

The first issue is one of scale. In its current state, the app doesn't feel completely finished. It could be launch-day server woes (which we totally understand). but we had problems uploading GLMPS and several of us at Mashable had the app crash on us on occasion. The app also lacks some of the simplicity that makes Instagram such a success.

The secondary issue is one of quality. Because the GLMPS team understands that lots of users will be uploading from a cellular data connection, video quality is heavily compressed and lower resolution. It still looks quite good, but it isn't anything to write home about. Our bigger problem is that the "image" part of the photo itself is taken just using the video camera. In other words, you're getting a still photo at 640x480 resolution or lower. It's nice that that image is saved to the iPhone camera roll, but we wish it had better quality.

We like the idea of the app, but it's too soon to tell if sharing mini moving images will be as compelling as sharing photos using other photo sharing services. We think the real potential for GLMPS will come with the ability to string together multiple images and montages to create one bigger movie.