Free Online Slideshow Apps

Slide.ly is a brand new site that is still closed to the public (but you can find an invite if, as I did, you just search for “Slide.ly + invites” on the Web and you’ll find a number of tech blogs that have free invites), but it looks very good — and very similar to Animoto.

You can search for photos online or use your own, and easily combine them with music to create musical video-like slideshows. I’m adding it to The Best Ways For Students To Create Online Videos (Using Someone Else’s Content), and I also have a link to that list on The Best Ways To Create Online Slideshows. It is a website suited for people who want to show off their interests, favorite photos and music in a different way. As the name of the website already suggests, Slid.ly allows users to create free online slideshows using your favorite photos and music and then having the option to share it with your friends on popular social websites like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc.

Slide.ly can transform your pictures from Facebook, Instagram and Flickr into a video slideshow that you can share online.

Having grown up with a photography and music background, Tom More aspired to create a product that would help people tell their stories in a creative, emotional way. That’s why his company, EasyHi, created Slide.ly, a free, simple way to instantly create personalized video slideshows with your favorite photos and music to share with friends and family.

Since launching in June, users have created 1 million video slideshow and shared 40 million photos on Slide.ly. The average user creates two or more videos in their first 15 minutes on the site, most of them related to celebrations and important events such as weddings, birthdays, proposals and vacations.

Creating a Free Online Slideshows on Slide.ly is fast and simple. Users can upload photos from their computer, Instagram, Flickr, Google Images and other websites, and then add messages and a range of effects such as “old film” and “orange glow” to their photos. For the background music, they can browse songs on the web or upload songs that they already own on their computer.

Now, just in time for the holiday season and New Year, Slide.ly has introduced a one-click video maker that quickly turns Facebook albums into personalized free slideshow as well.

Best Choice

For the longest time, I would use something like iMovie to create projects like this, and as much as I like to use it, I always felt that there had to be an easier way to get a photo slideshow up and running. Slide.ly does exactly that, it provides a way for the average person to gather photos and make a very good looking slideshow that they can share with others. They don’t give you too many features to overwhelm you to the point you don’t want to use it. I loved that I could create a slideshow in under 5 minutes if I wanted to; it was really that easy. The social aspect of the app is also a welcome feature, which adds a layer of interaction, which I believe is natural for something like this.

As it stands right now Slide.ly is a solid slideshow maker creating app, which really doesn’t need many more features to make it better. With that being said, I would love to see a couple of things added in the future. It would be nice to be able to possibly add video to your online slideshows and maybe some other paid features. As of right now, as far as I can tell Slide.ly is free to use and is not making money. I would love to be able to pay them for some added features so that they can keep the product sustainable for the long term.

Personal Thoughts

I truly believe that Slide.ly is a great app that has a lot of potential. For one, they make it so that just about anyone can understand it and create a quality slideshow and two, it is web based, which means you can make these on any computer. If they can find a way to stay sustainable and gain more traction with users, I really see this taking off. I would highly suggest you go and try it out for yourself and see how easy it is to use.

How to start

To start, the user can either do a quick sign-up by connecting Slid.ly with your Facebook account or by signing up for an individual account on Slid.ly.

When you create a new slideshow, you have the ability to choose from well-known sources on the Internet such as – Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Pickplz, and Picasa, as well as Google Images, photos from your friends or those from your computer. You then mix that content with music from SoundCloud and YouTube and add some effects to spice it up.

Once the music and the photos have been added you can “save and publish” your own slideshow to popular social networking websites.