Aviary Aims To Power the Web’s Photo Effects With New API

Web-based tools creator Aviary is launching an API on Wednesday that allows any website or mobile app to easily tweak or add effects to its photos.

A dating site, for instance, could use the API to autocorrect red eye, lighting and blurriness in profile photos. An ecommerce site could automatically resize and watermark product photos. And a photo-snapping mobile app could add Instagram-like filters without creating its own code. Aviary does the heavy lifting in the background.

In the past, Aviary has created APIs for its suite of web-based media editors and embeddable photo editor. Photo startup Pixable, online store creator Shopify and photo diary Momentile are a few of the companies that use the tools to give their users photo editing options.

The new Effects API, which can run without any user interaction, is somewhat of a new approach for the 4-year-old startup.

“We saw the photo filter space and decided instead of entering it (via a competing app), we should power the space. …We are expanding our offering and moving into the consumer space,” says Alex Taub, Aviary head of business development.

Just as Twilio‘s API powers group messaging apps like GroupMe, Beluga and Fast Society, Aviary aims to lurk behind the websites and apps that use photos — ultimately charging frequent users for its service after the beta period ends.

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