Parse, a startup beloved by businesses, brands, and developers for making it blissfully easy to create a quality mobile app, just released a new open-source clone of Instagram.
AnyPic, the latest addition to the Parse gallery, is a photo-sharing app. Along with open sourcing the technology, Parse produced a tutorial that teaches users “How to Build Instagram in Just 30 Minutes.” Now anyone can create a billion dollar app in the time it takes to bake cookies. Not really, but they can at least clone one.
“A lot of people are adopting a mobile-first strategy, but mobile development is complicated,” said co-founder Ilya Sukhar. “There are connectivity issues, unpredictable iteration cycles, varying interfaces, and multiple code languages. We want to show that building a sexy, engaging, scaleable app does not have to be hard.”
Parse set out to create AnyPic after observing Instagram’s rampaging success. Using Parse’s platform, companies attempting to build photo-sharing capabilities into their own products can do it without spending thousands on an elusive (and expensive) mobile developer. Parse will handle the complicated, nitty-gritty, backend work of servers, networks, caching etc. and let businesses deal with the front-facing components like user experience and design.
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For this reason, Parse has met with great success from companies inside and outside of the technology sector. Well-known companies like Hipmunk, Exec, and Band of the Day, are run with Parse, as well as clothing brands and sports teams that want a mobile presence to ramp up marketing.
Parse hit a traction milestone this week and announced that it now powers 25,000 apps and reaches tens of millions of devices. Chances are, with the popularity of mobile technology right now (and around $7 million in venture capital), Parse will only continue to grow and innovate on its quest to democratize mobile development.
The company is based in San Francisco and has 16 employees. It participated in the Y Combinator class of summer 2011. AnyPic is currently available in the AppStore.
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