Why My Family Loves Chatbooks (and Yours Might Too) | Wilmington, DE Photographer Recommends A Simple Way To Print Your Camera Roll

As a Wilmington, Delaware family photographer, one of the questions I hear most often from new parents is, “What’s the easiest way to actually do something with all the photos of my baby on my phone?” While I will readily recommend professional print labs like MPix, Smallwoods, and Artifact Uprising for heirloom albums and wall-worthy prints, sometimes you just want something simple and quick-- something that keeps up with real life.

If your camera roll is full of sweet everyday moments, milestones, and memories you meant to print one day… you’re not alone. Most of us carry a lifetime’s worth of photos in our pockets, and despite our best intentions, those memories often stay trapped on our phones. That’s where Chatbooks comes in.

Chatbooks is a free, easy-to-use app that turns your favorite phone photos into beautiful 30–60 page photo books. Whether you're gifting it to a loved one or using it for yourself, a 3-, 6-, or 12-month photo book subscription makes preserving memories effortless and meaningful.

One of the sweetest surprises of recieving a monthly Chatbook in the mail for my family has been how much my kids love them. There’s something magical for my kids in seeing their own faces, artwork, and everyday adventures in a real book they can flip through. This is one of the main reasons I whole-heartedly recommend a chatbook subscription to my friends and clients.

1. Your Camera Roll, Printed and Preserved

We take hundreds of photos every month of our kids playing in the yard, family outings to the zoo, or those perfectly golden sunsets. But unless we take the time to sort and print those memories, they get forgotten-- lost in the digital void. Chatbooks pulls your favorite photos straight from your camera roll, social media, or cloud storage, and turns them into printed books you can actually hold in your hands, flip through, and keep.

2. So Easy!!

The Chatbooks app is beautifully simple. Just choose your photo source (I often use my smart phone's camera roll or google photos), customize your layout if you want to, and the app takes care of the rest. Books are created automatically based on your settings—no design degree or hours of work required. You can even set it and forget it, letting your subscription build itself month by month. My husband and I are logged into the same Chatbooks account on our phones so that we can both add to each month's photo book.

This photo wasn't staged at all. My kids seriously love looking through our family's collection of chatbooks!!

3. Perfect for Busy Parents and Tiny Hands

If you're a parent, you know how fast the days fly by. One minute it’s a birthday party with cupcakes in the backyard, the next they’re building blanket forts or riding bikes without training wheels. Chatbooks makes it easy to document real family life as it unfolds, without needing to carve out time for scrapbooking.

And here’s the best part: kids love them. My own children will pull our Chatbooks out all the time and flip through them like storybooks, pointing out favorite memories and narrating each photo with giggles and proud little retellings: “This was the day we went to the beach!” or "That’s when we went camping and the Easter bunny hid eggs while we were sleeping!” I find that as a mom, I am pulling out my phone more often to take pictures thinking, "The kids are going to want to this in thier photo book."

Plus, these books are built to last. They are durable enough for sticky fingers and repeat reads. It’s the kind of photo album that actually gets used and loved, not just stored away. Chatbooks will actually replace a book if you kids loved it too much.

4. A Thoughtful Gift That Keeps on Giving

Whether it’s for a new parent, a grandparent who lives far away, or a friend who just had a baby, a Chatbooks subscription makes a meaningful, personalized gift. With 3-, 6-, or 12-month options, it’s perfect for holidays, birthdays, or “just because.” And unlike single-use gifts, this is a gift that grows over time-- just like the memories it holds.

5. Customizable, Affordable, and Beautiful

For photo book options, you can choose softcover or hardcover, add custom titles, and include captions or dates. The books are clean, modern, and designed to fit perfectly on a shelf or coffee table. At a budget-friendly price point, my family enjoys the paperback monthly minis-- a subscription that is just $8 a month. Chatbooks makes it possible for us to build a tangible archive of our life without spending a fortune.

Start Preserving Your Memories Today

There’s something powerful about seeing your everyday moments printed and bound—something that says, This mattered. This is worth remembering. With Chatbooks, your favorite photos don’t have to sit unseen in your camera roll. They become part of your story.

Whether you’re treating yourself or giving a heartfelt gift, a Chatbooks subscription is a simple, beautiful way to honor the life you’re living—one page at a time. I'm not affilated with this company at all-- I just really love the product. It's one that I reccomend all the time mom-to-mom and to all of my clients.

If you are interested in printing your family's memories, Mootsh is another photo subscription service my family loves. You can read my review HERE.