App uses Instagram to help travelers instantly determine the vibe of city venues

This app uses algorithms to trawl public Instagram photos and glean information about the vibe of city bars and restaurants, before curating them into visual travel guides.

Instagram may be a great tool for sharing personal photos, but the data in those images can actually provide insight into what’s going on at any point in the world at any time. We’ve already seen Sweden’s Arlanda Airport harness the platform for its Local’s Guide app, and now a new app called Jetpac is using Instagram to let users check the vibe of city venues.

The app uses image analysis algorithms to determine what’s going on in each photo — whether the people in it are happy or sad, what kind of person they are judged by their style, and most crucially where they are, even if the image isn’t geotagged. Those downloading the app for free from the App Store can then browse categories such as ‘Happiest places in town’ or ‘Hipster hangouts’, which feature public Instagram photos curated by the Jetpac team. Users can then immediately decide if they like the look of a place based on the photos that have been taken there, and each image comes with extra details about the venue or location. The video below acts as an ad for the app:

Considering Instagram is essentially a collection of billions of photographs taken around the world in the past few years, are there other ways this data can be analyzed?

Update: as of August 2018, Jetpack now acts as a hashtag generator to increase reach on Instagram posts.