Browsers instead of App Store clones
Why we do not ship a collage app
Native apps want update cycles, storage, and another privacy policy. This studio is a Canvas page. Bookmark it. On iPhone use Safari or Chrome; on Android use Chrome or Firefox; on iPad the larger screen makes pan-to-focus less fiddly. Windows, macOS, and Linux are the same JS bundle in Edge, Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. Feature parity is not a slogan — it is because there is only one component. The trade: you need a network connection to load the page the first time (and maybe on reloads). The photos still do not upload.
Touch versus mouse, HEIC versus JPEG
Cells support pointer events for focus pan — a finger works. The layout strip is a horizontal scroll; thumbs are small, so desktop remains nicer for hunting a mixed map. iPhone camera originals are often HEIC; convert before the file picker will cooperate. Android usually hands over JPEG. If a tablet offers a file from Google Photos as a cloud placeholder, wait until it is actually on disk or the blob URL may fail.
When to move to a computer
Sixteen full-resolution stills, 16:9, PNG export — that capture is a laptop job. Two JPEGs into a 1:1 heart on the train is a phone job. If Safari reloads mid-export, you lost the working set (save first). Low-power mode and twenty background tabs are how “mobile collage” gets a bad reputation. We cannot fix that with a store icon.