Stiktu

Layar’s social augmented reality app Stiktu now available worldwide Layar, the world’s leading mobile augmented reality provider, today announced the global release of Stiktu - a free mobile application that allows users to remix the real world. Stiktu is the social and user-generated equivalent of Layar, allowing users to add their own drawings, text, images and stickers to magazines, posters and more by simply scanning them with a smartphone. These creations can then be viewed by anyone who scans the same item. The social elements of Stiktu ensure that users can connect by discovering, liking, sharing and commenting on interesting posts.

“With Stiktu we really put the power of augmented reality in the hands of the people. I truly believe that this is the most innovative app currently available in any app store. Stiktu opens tremendous new possibilities to interact with the physical world around us. At Layar, we want to democratize space and Stiktu is the app to help us reach that mission.”

- Raimo van der Klein, co-founder of Layar.

In 2011, Layar began exploring new ways to liberate space and enable users to create their own augmented reality. Inspired by street art and other artistic and creative subcultures, Stiktu became a social network in which users can express themselves and view the creations of others. In December of last year, Stiktu was released to a select group of European countries, providing the opportunity to gather user feedback about the features and usage of the application.

“Over the past months, we have been focused on improving the user experience, and we have learned a lot from our users about their use of Stiktu. With every release, we have seen the levels of engagement growing as users return on a daily basis to create posts and interact with others. These numbers and incoming requests for a global release by people all over the world helped us decide to take this step and open up Stiktu to the rest of the world.”

- Maurice Groenhart, Product manager of Stiktu.

Stiktu 1.3 with Comments and More!

You asked for it, and we listened. Comments have come to Stiktu. We've received lots of feedback over the months about what you want to see in Stiktu, and by far, commenting has been at the top of the list. That’s why we’re happy to introduce commenting with Stiktu 1.3, available today for Android and iPhone!

(Click images to enlarge). Now when you come across a post you like, you can leave a comment and interact with other users in a new way. It’s more than just “Liking” a post, now you can express whatever opinion you want! When you leave a comment, whoever created the post will be notified, encouraging interaction. We also have a few interface changes that should make things easy and more friendly. The first of these is the Discovery page. Before we had small thumbnails that were hard to select or see. Now, the Discovery page features large thumbnails which you can scroll through. You can also quickly switch between popular users, popular posts and recent posts instead of viewing them all on one screen. And finally, we changed how you view the likes per post. Instead of a small list on the post’s main screen, we’ve created a new page that lists the users that have liked that post. This is more consistent with the rest of the app, and it allows you to quickly follow other users by tapping the button next to their name.

Has it been two months already? Seems like only yesterday we announced the launch of Stiktu, but here we are! To celebrate our two-month anniversary, we’ve got an update available today for both iPhone and Android.

Make sure to check for updates today to download Stiktu 1.2, which has some great new features. Thanks to all of your awesome feedback, we’ve added some features that should make Stiktu even better. Here’s what’s new:

Re-posting: Twitter has re-tweeting, Tumblr has re-blogging and Pinterest has re-pinning - all great ways to re-share posts you have discovered with your social networks. Now with Stiktu, you can re-share great stuff posted by others to your friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter. We’ll notify the original person who posted it and credit them on your post.

Invite Friends: Stiktu is a lot of fun when you’re sharing cool stuff with your friends, so now you can invite your friends to join Stiktu. In this release, you can easily fire off a quick invitation email to your friends and they’ll be joining the fun in no time!

Better, Faster, Stronger: Of course, as always, we’ve fixed some bugs and made improvements to the overall performance and speed of Stiktu.

We’ve got some other great stuff coming down the pipeline, including the ability to comment on posts, so keep an eye out for that shortly. Your feedback helps us determine which features are in high demand, so keep sending your ideas and comments to [email protected] or leave us a comment on Facebook!

Help TulipMan Take the World!

Stiktu & Dutch Artist GabyGaby to Collaborate at DLD

Stiktu is very excited to announce another great artist collaboration! Later this month at the DLD (Digital - Life - Design) conference in Munich, Germany, Stiktu and Dutch artist GabyGaby (Gaby Zwaan) will present an interactive art exhibit that encourages visitors to participate in creating unique works of art using the Stiktu app.

DLD is a global conference network on innovation, digital media, science and culture which connects business, creative and social leaders, opinion-formers and investors for crossover conversation and inspiration.

GabyGaby’s unconventional style of mixing and mashing different styles and materials has helped him overcome dyslexia while simultaneously earning him worldwide notoriety and providing inspiration to many across the globe.

The works to be shown are part of Gaby’s “TulipMan Takes the World” project. Traditionally, art is a one way street, as the artist creates something with their vision and their story. Now, Gaby is flipping this on its head as visitors at DLD can create their own story with his art using Stiktu. Visitors will be able to download Stiktu from the App Store or Android Market, sign up, scan a TulipMan and add their own art to it.

Stiktu in de Volkskrant!

Last week we were delighted to see Stiktu featured in an edition of de Volkskrant, a daily newspaper here in the Netherlands. The article talked about emerging social trends for the coming year (including AR and Stiktu!) and encouraged readers to download Stiktu and scan the page.

Dozens of readers added their own spin to the image in the newspaper, as you can see above. Our favorite was created by h.versteegh, who placed the phrase "Hotrod 2112" and colorful lines of smoke on the image of the famous Jetsons car.

We also liked the others you see above, including a creative hijacking of the image to promote the Never Rest Experience by socialchaos, a futuristic "Happy New Year" from treborneelk and the image of cartoon Johnny Bravo flexing and posing on the tail of the car, posted by blaise.

To add your own version, here's a photo of the newspaper you can use to scan with Stiktu if you don't have last week's paper. Check out the dozens of other posts added over the last few days and add your spin on this image. 

Welcome 2012 with New Year's Stickers

Now that Christmas has passed and 2011’s days are numbered, we’re on the verge of welcoming in a brand new year. New Year’s is a festive time of year filled with fireworks, champagne and celebrations, and this time around we here at Stiktu want to help you ring in the new year with some brand new stickers.

Now in Stiktu, you’ll find a whole bunch of New Year’s-themed stickers, including champagne bottles, fireworks and those fun 2012 sunglasses you see everyone wearing on New Year’s Eve.

We want to see your best New Year’s posts, so share your posts on Facebook and Twitter and be sure to tag them with #2012. If you're like us, you've probably got a pile of holiday cards from friends and family lying around the house. These make for great objects to add your fun creations to!

Stiktu 1.0 is Here!

For the last four months, we’ve been testing Stiktu in a private invite-only beta. We’ve made several changes since that first beta release, and listened to a lot of your amazing feedback. Today, this phase ends and Stiktu officially goes public!

      Stiktu is now available for anyone to download in the iTunes App Store and Android Market. As we gradually roll out, the app is available only in Europe. To be specific, users in The Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece and France can download Stiktu right now. The rest of the world will join the fun very soon! We promise.

Stiktu is a fun way to express yourself using augmented reality. You can add text, images, stickers and sketches to objects around you by scanning them with your phone. Then anyone who scans that item will see your post directly on top of it, no matter where they are in the world.

A special thank you is certainly due to all the beta users who helped us make Stiktu what it is today on this exciting day. If you currently have a beta version of Stiktu installed on your device, make sure you delete it when you download the official version.

Stiktu Welcomes Sinterklaas & Zwarte Piet!

It's that time of year again, folks! His steamboat from Spain has pulled into port, and Sinterklaas has arrived in the Netherlands with his companion, Zwarte Piet! And now the fun has come to Stiktu as well.

Be a Part of the #Occupy Movement with Stiktu

Across the globe the #Occupy movement has risen to protest various societal and political injustices. Now, thanks to some new stickers we just added to Stiktu, you can help spread the word wherever you are.

"I Wish This Was" Now on Stiktu!

"What if we could find out what all our neighbors pay in rent? What if we could say what businesses we want in these vacant storefronts? What if we could learn about people's experiences and stories with particular buildings? What if we could use public space to share and learn what matters most to the people around us?" - Candy Chang

Candy Chang is an artist who takes advantage of public space to share her ideas and encourage discussion. The "I Wish This Was" campaign has been one of her most popular installations, and now you can participate no matter where you are.

Are you participating in Movember? Don't tell us you haven't heard of it.

Movember is a global month-long event and charity focused on one thing: moustaches. And growing them. This month of Stiktu you'll find a great selection of moustaches you can use to add a little Movember flair to your posts. Look for them under the Stickers section.

So show us your best Movember posts! Tag them with #movember and share them on Facebook or Twitter and we'll post some of the best ones here on the blog throughout the month.

Try Out the Latest Stiktu Beta!

We've released an updated version of our beta, so check your inboxes for a new email with links to download and install Stiktu!

Above is a quick video explaining what Stiktu is and how to use it.

Hey everyone! We're hard at work making the next version of Stiktu based on the feedback from our first beta group. We should have a new version very soon, but in the meantime if you'd like to sign up to join our next beta group, head on over to Stiktu.com and leave us your info!

Hey Stiktu-ers! Today I've got a tip for those of you that may have had an issue when creating your Stiktu username.

Unfortunately the version of Stiktu you all have features one nasty little bug: usernames with capital letters are deemed "invalid." It's a stupid bug, we know, and we have a fix for this and many other bugs coming soon!

We were just so excited to make sure all the technical things were working that silly things like this managed to squeak through. But, don't worry, we're strapping on our special bug squashing shoes!

So to make things run smoothly until then, make sure your usernames do not contain capital letters, and you should have no problem creating an account.