Two African developers based in Ghana have launched Suba, an events-based iOS and Android mobile app that allows everyone at fun social gatherings to see and share photos together in one central photo stream. Suba goes beyond the constraints of a Friends List common to other social platforms, and allows event attendees to see, save, and share everyone’s photos – even the photos of people they aren’t already connected to.

“We came up with the concept for Suba after attending a friend’s wedding. Everyone was taking pictures, and we realized that we’d never have a chance to see them,” says Nelson Klutse, CEO of Suba tells Appsafrica. “Our ultimate ambition is to be globally synonymous with event experiences. Wherever there’s an event happening, it should be known that Suba is where you can find all of the photos taken at the event.”

The name Suba reflects the “flow” of  the app’s novel photo viewing experience. It’s a riff on the the word “nsuba,” which means “stream” in Twi, a local language of Ghana. Suba’s unique features help event attendees relive the best moments from social gatherings in a fun, exciting way:

• Event-based: Time and place are a lot more central to the Suba experience than in other photo apps. All photo streams are anchored to a specific location, and each stream tells the story of people celebrating together at a particular moment in time.

• Going beyond the Friend List: The best events bring strangers together, which is great for meeting new people, but not so great for accessing the great pictures taken by folks you might never see again. With Suba, a physical location – not a “Like” or a “Follow” – connects event attendees to each other, and so strangers can quickly share photos with everyone else who was there without having to hastily scribble down contact details.

• Superior photo-viewing experience: The Suba stream is a new, highly engaging photo-viewing experience that helps users relive the moment in a vivid, engrossing way. As event attendants flick through everyone’s snapshots, they can easily save their favourites, as well as share their own photos with everyone in the stream.

• Rich social interaction within images: Where other social networks focus on merely freezing a moment in time, Suba delights in bringing moments to life. Suba does this with its “Doodle” feature, which allows friends to scribble, mark up, and otherwise add a personal touch to the memory described by the photo.

Suba was developed by co-founders Nelson Klutse and Eric Hackman, and is based at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) Incubator, the former home of Saya, the African mobile messaging service that was recently acquired by the US-based mobile apps giant Kirusa.

“People are often surprised that we’re developers from Africa. The common narrative of the continent is usually one of poverty or aid, so the idea that something as innovative as Suba could be created here is a contrast to many people’s misconceptions of Africa,” says Eric Hackman, co-founder of Suba.

To expand into international markets, Suba is partnering with event producers in cities such as New York, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, and Mumbai to introduce the app to cultural influencers with the ultimate goal of making Suba globally synonymous with shared event experiences.

Suba is currently available as a free app in the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. Available for download here also