Photoblogging app Storehouse debuts new story-discovery features

Photoblogging app Storehouse is announcing new discovery features today. The iPad app will now include three separate channels at login, the ability to switch between the classic streaming layout and a new grid layout, and recommended posts showing up in user profiles.

It’s also adding hyperlink support in stories, autosave of drafts to a user’s iPad, and some small user interface enhancements and bug fixes.

With Storehouse, K-12 students as well professional photographers and even brands can create visually-rich “stories,” as the company calls them.

Storehouse was founded by Mark Kawano, a former lead designer at Apple, and Timothy Donnelly, who previously worked at the iPad-only publication The Daily. The duo launched the app last January as the “Medium for photoblogging.”

As companies, and especially those focused on visual content, begin to pour more and more resources into content discovery, Storehouse is following suit. For example, social pinboard Pinterest has been rolling out new and improved social discovery features designed to surface better search results and better suggestions based on a user’s activity. Similarly, Storehouse’s latest move will help deliver stories to users that are targeted to their interests.

“With this update, we were much more focused on content discovery. We have a world class community publishing amazing stories every single day that we are so proud of. We want to help our users share and discover beautiful stories, just as easily as they create those stories on Storehouse,” Kawano said in an official statement.

Although the company wouldn’t disclose specific numbers, it said that not only has it seen “tremendous adoption with hundreds of thousands of users on the platform” since launching in January, but that its win of the Apple Design Award at WWDC this month (reminder that Kawano was previously a lead designer there) and the fact that it’s featured in the app store have helped it gain a lot of new users and recognition.

While other photoblogging and blogging tools such as Medium, Exposure, Tumblr, and even WordPress exist, Storehouse believes its differentiator is its focus on reimagining publishing on the iPad.

Storehouse was founded in 2013 and is based in San Francisco. The company previously raised $7 million as its first round of funding from Sherpa Ventures, True Ventures, Lerer Ventures, Designer Fund, and some angel investors.

Storehouse Release – June 18 from Storehouse on Vimeo.