Send and receive postcards to all of your friends in other countries!
In an age of messaging immediacy, the postcard stands out as an archaic relic. Equal parts slow, limited, and considered, sometimes a postcard’s journey originate on a disused wire rack, a spinning metal tumbleweed that tourists examine, consider and walk by. After perusing the available selection, a traveler may revisit their experience through the memories invoked from the manufactured sites and vistas: a hike recently completed; a night out (whose impact has yet to be thwarted by the cafe down the street); a tall building in holiday regalia, both celebratory and offensive. After remembering where that pen went, a barely legible message is scrawled (as who practices penmanship?), an inscription added, after which the true journey begins: where is the nearest Post Office? Do they even exist in this remote coastal town? How long will it take to get there? I will be home before this arrives, what’s the point?
This app allows one to share a single photograph with another, in an act of kindness while separated across space and time. A postcard can be authored either straight from the app, or by starting with a photograph from any application and sharing it. Text, when applied to create a unique object, manifests as a physical postcard sent in the mail to the intended audience.
What makes this experience unique is what happens after the postcard is sent. Each purchase entitles the author to a conversation, as every physical postcard sent includes a QR code, unique to the recipient. When the recipient receives the postcard, they can respond as quickly as possible: select a photograph, write a brief message, send. To: and From: addresses are not necessary, as that is defined by the original author.
What was once a solo method of communication is now a social experience. The traveler’s destination is no more important than the lived experience of the recipients, as the journey is what matters most. The pending conversation between friends takes place over weeks, not seconds, and the physical artifact is a persistent reminder of the bond and exchange.
Share your photography. Reply to your friends. Let them know that you "Wish You Were Here" by sending them the gift of a postcard.
Features:
- Send a postcard in minutes, receive a reply weeks later (roughly 7-10 days each way in the US, 10-20 days internationally)
- AppClip support for replies: no app necessary to respond
- Playful experience for browsing your previously sent postcards
- Send postcards to many international destinations
Delight is a very specific word—not just happiness but a particular kind of surprise and immediacy. I don’t think I’ve ever applied “delightful” to an app before. Every time I open WYWH it puts me in a delightful space: I’m thinking about a new or different place or thing I’ve photographed, and I’m communicating about that thing to someone I care about, and they’re going to get their own pleasant surprise in the near future. More apps should generate this sort of feeling, most can’t. So grab this and send a postcard!
Wow. With unique photo options or txt
Unique-app
This app is great. It can be used to send postcards to friends, neighbors, loved ones or almost anyone. See something you want to share? Take a photo and mail it. Say something you want to share? Want to invite friends for dinner or tea or a block party? Write it out and mail it. There no need to hunt around your house for a stamp as postage is included. The creative options are endless.
This needed to happen!
TherealMimiLynn
This is the best app ever of all time. Why haven’t we been doing this all along? I’m going to use it everywhere for everyone always now. So satisfying!
Developer Response
❤️❤️❤️🥳💌
Great but…
olreviews
Such a wonderful concept but it’s sort of let down because it’s difficult to use.To send a postcard you NEED to use a contact from your Contacts app. The contact NEEDS to be formatted exactly as the developer wants: first name, last name, correctly filled out address.You cannot make a postcard without first adding a correctly formatted contact from Contacts.I understand the logic but it’s so stringent and unfriendly. It’s not clear to me why I simply couldn’t manually enter a contact’s information. Yes, I have this information but no I’m not so organized that my Contacts app is correctly formatted. Disappointing!
Developer Response
It’s a very fair criticism, and I don’t fault you for it. I’ve received it, and will offer an update after the forthcoming international release.Part of the reason I do this is to help with ensuring the address is valid, and also to help with a privacy-focused quick send process: 1. If you use contacts, you can easily choose the same contact again to send another card. I don’t need to keep track of a customer address book and hold on to user data. 2. If there is a free entry form, to make it quick to re-send I need to either a) keep track of who you’ve sent things to and make my own address book (which means I’m holding onto contact data), or b) allow you to save an entered address to an existing contact (which means I need more broad permissions to your contacts). The trade-offs of having a privacy-focused approach, where I have as little data as possible, means that these edge cases exist. I may choose to do 2b, because at least that way it will use normal iOS permissions you could revoke, but TBD. I hope this helps explain at least the WHY of this friction. It’s intentional, and makes it better for your data… even if it is a less-than-optimal user experience.
This version updates the way replies work for international postcards. As different countries have different requirements for what fields in an address are required, the app is now more permissive for many of the address fields.
Bug fixes:
- Required fields for to: and from: have been updated to be more flexible
Version 1.1.1
The developer, Erin Sparling, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Location
Contact Info
User Content
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Seller
Erin Sparling
Size
22.4 MB
Category
Photo & Video
Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 17.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 14.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
