We often joke at AppStorm that the majority of web apps are project management apps, but there’s one other category that seems to have more than its share of contenders: file sharing apps. From beautifully simple apps like Droplr and CloudApp, to file sync-and-share services like Dropbox and Box.net, to apps for selling files online, to Bittorrent and the hordes of semi-shady services for sharing, um, very large files, the web’s truly full of file sharing services.
That’s sensible, seeing as we all need an easy way to share our digital creations online, but one has to wonder if there could possibly be any more innovation in this space. After all, there’s many very simple file sharing apps that are beaufiully designed. What more could one ask for?
How about instant uploads, in-browser previewing of 150+ filetypes, and a way to share sets of files without signing up for an account? Would that spark your interest? If so, Jumpshare might be the file sharing app you’ve been waiting for.
Even Simpler File Sharing
In 2012, it seems impossibly that someone could have made file sharing online any simpler than it already is. Both Castle.so and the new Droplr let you share files just by dragging and dropping them into your browser, and don’t require you to signup for an account or anything else. It’s hard to one-up an app for simplicity when it already just takes one click to use it.
But what if you make an app that’s that simple, but does more for you at the same time? That’s exactly what Jumpshare does. Founded by Ghaus Iftikhar of AddictiveTips fame, Jumpshare is designed to do more than just be another file sharing app. Instead, it’s designed to make the pain of file sharing go away, to make it dead simple to share files and still not have to worry if those receiving your files will be able to view them. They’re working hard to make it the best file sharing app on the ‘net, even implementing changes in the first week it’s been open to the public to make it simpler for users.
Just drag-and-drop files to start sharing
That level of attention to detail shows throughout the app. There’s nothing extraneous, and every part of Jumpshare feels like it’s been tweaked to make it as simple as possible to share files. To share a file, just browse to jumpshare.com and drag-and-drop your file to the browser. You’ll be instantly taken to the file set view, where you’ll see your file’s upload progress. In the mean time, you can go ahead and share the link to your file set directly from the included social network links or just by sharing the link in your address bar right then.
The only other obvious feature on this page is the date at the bottom, which shows when your files will expire, as Jumpshare right now only saves files you share for 2 weeks. That’s still enough to, say, send a large attachment with a link in email or on your social networks.
Share files while they’re still uploading
Notice I refered to this view as the file set view. That’s because you can add more files to that same set to share them all at once. Just drag and drop any other files to that page, even while it’s still uploading the first file, and all of your files will be queued for upload. You’ll see the file name and size listed as soon as you’ve added them, and can delete files from the set by clicking the x button when hovering over a file.
Each file can be up to 100Mb each, and each set can have up to 2Gb of files, so it’s a great way to quickly share all the files you need. Best of all, you could share the set link and then keep uploading files, and people with the link would be able to see the new files as you add them. They won’t be able to add more files, though; you can only add more files or remove files from a set by opening that set’s link in the browser you used to create it, for now.
Add more files and quickly share the whole set
Over 150 File Types, in Your Browser
Sharing files, even file sets, isn’t quite as exciting in 2012 as it might have been a few years ago, but where Jumpshare really shines is with file previews. It can let you natively view most file types you can think of right in your browser, from Word documents to code files to Photoshop PSDs. It can even let you play back FLV videos without having Flash player installed, and it works perfectly even on iOS. That’s quite the feat!
When you share a file set, people viewing the set can click on individual files to preview them right in their browser, and for many users, that might be enough. They can then download the file to their computer, if they want, or can share the link to that file while viewing it. Or, they can tap their arrow keys to view the next picture or video in the set, though you’ll have to exit the viewer and select the next file to view other documents.
View over 150 filetypes right in your browser … even flash files on browsers without Flash!
While most of the file previews we tried worked even better than we would have expected, there were still some rough edges. Advanced PDFs had some artifacting, as in the screenshot below, and oddly, Jumpshare doesn’t natively recognize Markdown text files right now. It can let you view ePub files, which is very nice seeing as you can’t natively preview ePub files on most operating systems, much less web apps, but its rendering wasn’t the nicest you’ve ever seen. All in all, though, it’s a great tool for sharing files that can be easily previewed in the browser, and it’s already good enough that we expect to see many of these small bugs ironed out over time.
Most files look great, but some are a bit off
And that’s not all…
The current version of Jumpshare is great, and if you’ve been looking for a way to quickly share files individually or in sets in a way that’s easy to view online, you couldn’t ask for more. But, if you want to keep your files online for more than two weeks, or want to be able to quickly rediscover the files you’ve already shared, you might want a bit more. That’s why Jumpshare is still in beta. Along with continuing to tweak the app, the Jumpshare team plans to add user accounts in the near future, so you can organize your files and keep them for longer, and you can likely expect to see even more new features added over time.
Even for now, it’s a great app for quickly sharing files for others to view online, so you should be sure to check it out. Plus, who couldn’t fall in love with an icon that looks like the standard iOS share icon with a kangaroo instead of an arrow?