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Zola app aggregates wedding hashtags to share memories on mobile

Online wedding registry Zola has a new feature for its mobile application that combines all uses of a couple's wedding hashtag to aggregate photos taken during their special day.

Images posted on Instagram or tweeted on Twitter using the established hashtag will be added to a couple?s Zola account. Users can zoom in and out of their wedding timeline via these social shares and re-share images.

?The change in the way couples capture and share the memories from their wedding planning journey, as well as their wedding day, inspired us to want to utilize the wedding hashtag in a fun and innovative way,? said Shan-Lyn Ma, CEO of Zola, New York.

All in one place
The hashtag is undoubtedly a revolution, connecting posts and images surrounding a certain topic. Couples creating their own wedding hashtag have been an up-and-coming trend over the last few years.

Zola recently took a survey of its users and its executives were shocked after learning that more than 60 percent of its engaged couples had a wedding hashtag. The stat is a huge increase from the 9 percent percent of couples who had wedding hashtags in 2012.


Zola claims that its #Love feature is the first of its kind, serving as a place where couples can look at all tweets and Instagram images tagged with their wedding hashtags.

The wedding registry used Fabric?s Twitter kit to develop the feature. When users connect their Zola account to Twitter and Instagram, they then have access to the tool.


The #Love feature is available on the free Zola app and will be rolled out as a Web experience in the coming months.

Integrating new software
Zola recently took advantage of the release of iOS 8 by integrating gift tracking and Web capabilities to its mobile application.

Zola continues to climb the charts as it has aimed to reinvent the wedding registry arena by channeling mobile and has seen as much as 50 percent growth from month to month. Following its initial launch in October 2013, the brand climbed the ranks and now sits in the number three spot in the wedding registry category on the App Store.

Through updates provided by iOS 8, Zola allows its users to add any product found on the mobile Web to their wedding registry on Zola.

For example, if users find a product on Target.com that they like, users can easily add this via Apple?s tool of Custom Action. Custom Action is the ability to create a new kind of interaction from Mobile Safari to any iPhone app (see story).

?Seeing a single collection of tweets and Instagram images with a wedding hashtag in the one interactive mobile view has never been available to users before,? Ms. Ma said. ?Our belief is that engaged couples and their guests will want to see social mentions containing their wedding hashtag before the wedding, the day after the wedding and for many anniversaries to come.?

Final Take
Caitlyn Bohannon is an editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York