Dayframe: Android photo frame hands-on

Dayframe is an app that will turn your Android handset into a photo frame. This one comes by way of Cloud.tv, the same team responsible for HD Widgets and should not be confused with Daydream, the Jelly Bean feature. The Dayframe app is set to arrive in the Play Store on November 12th, however we took advantage of the beta program to get an early look.

The app launches to the screen you see sitting above. And as shown, Dayframe will allow you to sign-in and grab images from Facebook and Instagram as well as Tumblr, Flickr, 500px and Dropbox. You can also connect with Google+ and Twitter. Alternatively, you can have the app pull images that are stored locally on your device.

Once setup things get to a point where you are looking at lots of images. We began with connecting Tumblr and you can get an idea of what that looks like in the image sitting below. Basically, you have the images along with the names of the people that published (shared) them. We tested Dayframe using a Nexus 5 and unfortunately found things not quite ready for Android 4.4.

As you will see in some of the sample screenshots here, there is a black border. Then again, that is part of the beta process, sometimes things are not going to be quite perfect. That said, aside from that small issue, the app ran smoothy and in fact, it was sort of nice to just use as a way to browse through images with the device in our hand. But really, the point here is to have your smartphone or tablet serving as a digital photo frame.

Dayframe works with Android 3.0 or later, which could be helpful for those who happen to have an older unused device laying around. You will be able to connect over a WiFi connection, or again, have the images pulled from local storage. Otherwise, Dayframe will play images when you are not using your phone (or tablet). There are settings for WiFi, to adjust what battery level to turn the app off and a smart screensaver option to pick the best time to play.

Anyway, as mentioned, Dayframe will be arriving in the Play Store on November 12th. In the meantime, a placeholder version of the app is available. Basically, you can visit the Dayframe listing in the Play Store and install the placeholder — and then on the 12th you will get an update that brings the actual app.