When Mountain Lion launched last year, Apple introduced some basic Facebook sharing options to OS X. You can post a status update from Notification Center or upload a photo from Finder, Preview, iPhoto, or other Mac applications. While those functions are useful, Apple has yet to really embrace all of Facebook’s features. For example, you can’t tag a friend in a status update or create a new photo album, and the notification integration, while nice, is a bit unreliable.
Today, Tapmates released Moment, a new app that bridges the gap between OS X’s Facebook integration and the features you’re already used to on the Facebook website.
Moment is designed to sit in your menu bar and stay out of your way until you need it. When you do need it, you will find a range of features that makes it one of the best options for posting to Facebook from your Mac. You can drag photos, text, or videos to the menu bar icon and immediately attach them to a new post.
Clicking on the Moment icon brings up a list of your recent notifications and a box to enter a status update. Clicking on the status box reveals an array of new options, such as geotagging, photo and video attachments, and the option to tag friends in the post, video, or photo album.
When uploading photos from Moment, you can create a new album or choose from any of your existing albums, a feature that OS X’s native sharing lacks. You can also select the privacy level of any post, restricting it to just your friends or sharing it with the general public. Moment even has a preference that can reduce the size of your photos to speed up the uploading process and optionally auto-enhance each picture before publishing it to Facebook.
Tagging friends is fast and easy. All you have to do is start typing a name and Moment will automatically present you with a group of possible matches. Just click one of the suggestions to tag that person in the post. Geotagging gets the same treatment, and points of interest such as restaurants and stores are included in the suggestions.
The only complaint I have with Moment is that it stays open when you click over to another app. The only way to close it is to either switch to it and hit the escape key or to click an unlabeled gray circle in the upper left corner.
Other than that minor issue, I love this app. It looks fantastic and makes sharing to Facebook incredibly easy. If you’re a frequent Facebook user looking for something more complete than Apple’s integration, I highly recommend giving Moment a try. You can get it on the Mac App Store today for an introductory price of $ 3.99 (regular price: $ 7.99).
