Chatbooks Review- Preserving the Everyday Moments of Motherhood

This week our first box of Chatbooks came in the mail. All fourteen of them!

We have LOVED looking through these little photo books and I am so thankful I took the plunge and ordered our books! It’s only been on my to-do list for six months…

I shared a picture of our family looking at the Chatbooks for the first time on Instagram and Facebook. My husbands’ parents happened to be over at our house for dinner and right before bed I passed out the Chatbooks right where we were hanging out in my boys’ room.

Bedtime was then pushed back an hour, but no one minded because we were so enthralled with the books. It was so great to watch everyone’s faces and hear everyone’s exclamations over the photos. My boys especially were just precious as they shared special pictures they found with each other.

And then, the icing on the cake was when my husband told me I was right. “This was worth it”.

What Are Chatbooks?

I received several comments asking “What are Chatbooks?”  

This is totally understandable in an era when there are new ideas and products coming out all the time. But I love sharing what I love with you and these definitely qualify.

The simplest explanation is that Chatbooks are small photo books. Keep reading to find out more on why I think they are so great below. 

There is more than one way to make a Chatbook. The way I chose was to subscribe my Instagram account so that all my pictures since I joined Instagram would be included. And as I err more on the oversharing side, there were plenty of pictures. (Which, I’m definitely not regretting at this point).

Another way to make a Chatbook is simply to upload photos from your phone. This can even be done with more than one contributor.

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What I Love About Chatbooks:

• They are SIMPLE.

This is one of the most important reasons I am so glad I found Chatbooks. With my firstborn, I had time to sit down and make photo books. I had time to shop around for deals, find a coupon code, keep track of credits. I had time to work on the layout just how I wanted it. I had time to think of the perfect captions and enter them in with fancy fonts.

I DO NOT HAVE THAT TIME ANYMORE.

I have put off making photo books for a couple of years now because the idea of all the work it takes is just too much.

With the Instagram subscription to Chatbooks, there was not any formatting to fuss with. There is just one picture per page, with the date on the top and the caption below. The captions are automatically filled in with what I had written two years ago.

You have the option of leaving everything as is, or choosing which pictures to include and editing the captions. I opted to remove many pictures from the books and I edited the captions to shorten them and delete hashtags.

You also are able to pick a title for the books and a photo for each cover.

• They are INEXPENSIVE.

Subscribe to Chatbooks and each book is just $8. A new book is printed and mailed when it is filled with 60 photos.

If you are just starting your subscription like I was, and you have several books to catch up on, you are given the option of paying for and receiving all of your books at once, or paying for and receiving the books one or five or ten a month. You pick whichever works for you. 

It’s also important to note that even though they are inexpensive, they are still good quality. We have photo books from several different companies in our home, some nicer than others. I’ve been disappointed before in the quality of photo books, especially the quality of the printed pictures.

I was really pleased with the quality of our Chatbooks. The pictures are printed on thick paper and the cover is made from a thicker cardstock. They are not professional quality pictures, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want my small children flipping through professional quality books either. And letting them hold and flip through the books is one of the biggest reasons I purchased them. 

• They are SMALL.

Considering the principle of an economy of space, the fact that the books are not really big is an advantage.

All of my other photo books are various sizes. Chatbooks just look pretty on my shelf, all neat and orderly and white.

What Chatbooks Look Like:

Here is a look at what the books look like– their spines, covers, and pages.

This is the cover of one of the books I received. The photo fills the cover, with a small white border around.

On the spine, the title of the series is on one side and the volume number and date ranges are on the other.

Inside the books, there is one photo per page. Above each photo is the date it was taken (or shared on Instagram). Below each photo is room for a short caption, though no caption is required.

Have you bought your own Chatbooks?

What do you like to do with your everyday pictures? 

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