The app turns smartphone chaos into Photo-Zen

An app that organizes your chaotic collection of smartphone pictures is being developed by an Israeli startup.

GoodOnes uses machine learning to sift through bad photos and recommend good ones. The user can then swipe left or right to save or delete.

“We’re focused on creating a fun and easy-to-use platform that will help people transition from a messy camera to a photo camera,” said Israel Shalom, the company’s CEO.

He says their technology will allow users to enjoy scrolling through their photos without getting in the way of a random screenshot, receipt or eight of the same photos.

GoodOnes announced today that it has raised $3.5 million in seed funding to fund further product research and development.

The app is in “early access mode,” meaning paying customers can try it out while it’s being polished.

The company was founded by Israel Shalom and Aparna Pandey. Shalom served in 8200, the IDF’s elite intelligence unit, and worked as a product and engineering manager at Google and Dropbox. Pande recently sold his first startup, Kidstir, a cooking platform for kids.

Shalom said: “Like many parents, having kids turned my phone into a black hole of thousands of photos.

“Capturing your children’s special and everyday moments should be a positive experience, but it can quickly become overwhelming and impossible to navigate.

“As a product and engineering lead at Google and Dropbox, I was surprised that a solution hadn’t been developed yet.

“The industry has been focused on cloud storage to date, but we knew there was a better way.”

Brian Sack of TLV Partners, the Israeli venture capital firm that led the funding round, said: “When most people open their photo apps on Apple or Google, they feel more anxiety than joy.

“Instead of seeing interesting photos of themselves, their gallery is littered with trash. GoodOnes creates a pure photography experience where every photo they look at has meaning and significance.”