Occasionally1, I like to entertain my coworkers and online friends with memes based on inside jokes or Internet news.2 I’ve been trying a couple of meme generators for iOS over the past years, and eventually even thought about rolling my own solution with Python and PIL, but eventually gave up because that looked like too much work little potential for meaningful return.
Last month, Imgur released a free meme generator app for iPhone, which is pretty good and certainly better than many similar apps on the App Store. Imgur already hosts the majority of memes shared on Reddit, so it makes sense for the company to have a dedicated app with upload capabilities.
The MemeGen app is simple and it’s got some nice touches. By default, the app launches in a Create view that lets you pick a meme from a list of popular ones like I Should Buy A Boat Cat, First World Problems, Evil Plotting Raccoon, and other usual suspects. You can also turn your photos into memes by taking a new picture or choosing an existing one from your device library. There’s an option to log into your Imgur account, but I don’t have one so I wasn’t able to test the feature; if you don’t want to create and share memes, you can view popular ones in the Browse section.
The creation process is the same of other apps: there are controls to switch between Top and Bottom text, which is automatically placed on the meme and resized as you type. Memes are automatically uploaded to Imgur and given a public URL; from the app, there’s a shortcut to copy a meme’s link with one tap, which is handy. Alas, that button doesn’t return the direct image URL, but the Imgur one, which will prevent apps like Tweetbot from showing the picture thumbnail inside the timeline (therefore forcing you to open the Imgur website first). There’s also a sharing menu for system services and a button to save an image locally; I would like to see options for Open In, as well as a “Copy” function to copy an image and paste it somewhere else (you can’t tap & hold on the image on screen).
MemeGen has a Recents menu that lets you view memes you’ve recently created and shared. Perhaps you’re particularly into Good Guy Greg or have a special affection for Conspiracy Keanu (who doesn’t?) – the Recents menu is useful to have a running list of memes you frequently use. Even better, if you view a recent meme and tap the compose button, you can quickly create a new one from scratch.
Imgur’s MemeGen is a good meme generator and it could be perfect with an iPad app and better sharing options. It’s free on the App Store.
