It’s sad, but true: We both know you aren’t heading to the post office every time someone in your life is worthy of greeting-card sentiment — especially when there’s an e-card available. Thankfully, we’ve moved beyond midi-backed animations — justWink is a sophisticated e-card app brought to iPhone and iPod Touch by American Greetings.
JustWink’s cards offer a wide range of sentiment from birthdays and thank yous to weddings and life’s milestones in tones sincere to snarky. The UI is extremely friendly, launching on a scrolling dashboard of featured cards. Swipe down to see categories, and then tap in to see available selections. There isn’t a huge variety of cards to choose from, but all options are good-looking and there are enough categories to ensure you find just the right sentiment. When you see a card you like, tap to open in a pop-up, then tap to watch the card open to see the inner message. The app can be slow to load when opening a card, but the animation makes good use of the iPhone’s touch screen.
When it’s time to send a card, you can add personal options such as a photo. The first time I tried to add a photo, the app glitched and suggested I close the app and reboot my phone, but a force-close of the program was enough to remedy the issue. Next, you can add your own message, and use the slider bar to set its size. My favorite part of the app is the signature. When you tap to add this feature, justWink goes into landscape mode and provides you a blank canvas to sign your name using your fingertip (select the line weight from the sidebar). Once you’re finished personalizing, you can preview your card and send via Facebook or email (text message is coming soon). An account with justWink is required to send, but easy enough to set up in-app.
Your recipients will get an email with a clever envelope graphic (your name will appear in the return-address slot). They’ll click the link, and be shown your created card on a website (and the system will notify you via email that they’ve opened it). JustWink also offers a store locator in case you want to pick up a printed hard copy of your favorite card.
JustWink is one of the best e-card app’s I’ve seen, and I’ll be keeping it on my springboard for those times the mail just won’t make it in time.
Download the free Appolicious iPhone app
