Microsoft releases Twist, Photo sharing app for iOS

Twist is the latest project from Microsoft Garage, an experimental app development shop within Microsoft. The concept for Twist is simple. You start a conversation screen that is vertically divided in two. You take a photo, type a message over the top and it fills the top half. The recipient on the other end will do the same, replying by taking up the bottom half.

“When we were designing Twist, we observed that many of the digital ways people communicate today don’t allow for rich, expressive exchanges,” says Jennifer Shen, the principal program manager lead whose Silicon Valley-based team built Twist, in a blog post. “Many messaging apps are adding functionality to make their experiences feel richer, such as stickers, emoji and animated gifs. We wanted to look at ways we could make that experience even better.”

Messages can be sent on a 1:1 basis, or as a group. The images can be pulled from the user’s camera roll, or from Bing—a feature that Microsoft has included in other apps, such as Sway.

Twist is only available on iOS and to users in the U.S. and Canada. You can download it here: Twist on the iTunes App Store.