To kick off my summer vacation, I spent three weeks traveling around Thailand with a close childhood friend of mine. When we got back, we had nasty sunburns, knockoff sunglasses, and 800 photos that we had no idea what to do with. We tossed them all on Flickr and showed that to a few pals, and put a few of them on Instagram, but I still felt like our best photos were destined for something greater.
Then, one fateful day, I stumbled upon Trover, and I knew I’d found what I was looking for.
Trover, a Seattle company founded by Rich Barton and Jason Karas, is a photo-sharing platform for travelers’ highest quality photographs. It is full of phenomenal photographs of every place that you have ever been, and even better shots of places that you’ve never heard of. Trover has all of the capabilities that have become standard (ability to follow/be followed, like photos, create lists of favorite photos, etc…) for apps of its kind, and it functions smoothly and quickly.
However, Trover is unique and exciting. Perhaps Trover’s most ingenious and valuable feature is the app’s “nearby” tab, which lets users see the content created in close geographic proximity to them.
For example, an outdoorsy, adventurous, Seattleite looking for a weekend hike can head to the nearby section of the app, scroll down, and immediately be inundated with enticing photos of potential adventures gradually increasing in distance away from his current location.
Trover’s “been there too” feature is also fun and interesting. When a Trover user stumbles across a particularly excellent photo of a place that he has been, he can add it to his “been there too” list. By dedicating some time to doing this, one can assemble an incredibly high quality flip-book of past vacations, moments, and adventures.
Some might complain that, unlike apps such as Instagram, Trover does not allow users to select from a buffet of photograph filters. However, the complete absence of these filters means that any photograph on Trover is a sunrise, skyline, or natural vista that someone has actually seen with their own eyes. Knowing that these places that seem otherworldly on Trover exist and are accessible is empowering, inspiring, and only serves to ignite one’s wanderlust.
