A Chatbooks Review (And Get Your First Book Free)

I'm so excited about Chatbooks!

I take so many photos of my kid with my phone, that I was starting to get worried what would happen once my memory card filled up. I wanted those photos but didn't have the time (or patience) to upload them all to a photo printing service or to Google photos. Enter Chatbooks!

In case you don’t know what Chatbooks is, let me tell you:

Any photos you have on your Instagram, Facebook, or phone’s camera roll, can be uploaded into a 60 page photo book, chronologically, and with the option to import any time stamps, locations, and captions (which you can edit) for each picture. They will then print your photos in an 6×6 inch soft cover photo book and ship it to you for free. Then, if you wish to keep receiving photo books (they call this a “series”), they will send you one as soon as your next 60 page book fills up. Voila, photo book made! It’s so quick and easy, I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner.

You have some choices when it comes to customization too. You can rearrange, add/remove images, edit captions, add a title to the spine, and most importantly choose the cover photos for each book too. Or you don’t have to do any of those things and just let Chatbooks do it for you automatically in 30 seconds.



So what's the quality like and what did I think?

I have to say, for an $8 photo book, I am pretty impressed.

I love the matte texture of the covers and I love the uniformity of all the spines being labeled by date. The pages are smooth but not glossy. Photos are printed on a satin coated paper.

Most of the images are bright and clear, but there are a few in there that are a bit grainy. This is most likely due to going heavy on the Instagram filters or the quality of the original image wasn't all that great to begin with (not enough lighting, too closely cropped). So that was my own bad and not on Chatbooks. But again, for $8 this is no big deal to me. I'm happy to even have all these photos in hard copy instead of in my phone's memory.

Also, just so you know, not all images are automatically printed in a square shape. Some are a tall rectangle and some are landscape depending on if you uploaded it that way to Instagram. Video screenshots are included as well, and the image printed in your book will be the cover image you chose while uploading to Instagram. It's very easy to exclude any images you do not want in your book though, so this wasn't a big deal for me. I just thought it was worth mentioning because I wish all the images were automatically square for uniformity.



If you are looking for an easy way to get images off your phone and into your hands, I would totally recommend Chatbooks. If you are looking for something more heirloom quality or more luxurious and personalized, I would recommend Shutterfly or someplace near you that specializes in print photography.

But these little books are great and I have signed up for a series subscription, so the next time a book fills with 60 images, I'll have 3 days to through them all, add/remove/edit them before it ships automatically!

Want a free Chatbook?

Your first book is free when you click this link!

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