Topics
Latest
AI
Amazon
Image Credits:Lapse(opens in a new window)under a license.
Apps
Biotech & Health
Climate
Image Credits:Lapse(opens in a new window)under a license.
Cloud Computing
Commerce
Crypto
Enterprise
EVs
Fintech
fund-raise
widget
punt
Government & Policy
Hardware
layoff
Media & Entertainment
Meta
Microsoft
Privacy
Robotics
Security
Social
Space
startup
TikTok
Transportation
speculation
More from TechCrunch
Events
Startup Battlefield
StrictlyVC
Podcasts
Videos
Partner Content
TechCrunch Brand Studio
Crunchboard
meet Us
It can be a fortune in 2024 to find an analogue camera , buy film ( and maybe exceptional batteries ) for it and take pictures that then necessitate to be pay up for to be develop . Yet the experience had a charm and a simpleness to it . For those longing for those sure-enough days , a inauguration calledLapsehas been kick in smartphone users an choice — you take pictures that you have to wait to see “ modernize , ” with no chance of redaction and retake , before share them with a select group of friends if you select .
Lapse has been been gain some grip in the market — take millions of user , 100 million picture captured each calendar month and a sought after , consistent top-10 ranking in the U.S. app memory board for photographic apps . Now it ’s announcing a novel round of funding of $ 30 million to take its ambitions to the next story .
Lapse ’s plan include more behind - the - scenes discourse of the “ unedited ” photos , adding more feature around the photo experience and an eventual move into video .
Down the line , there may even be some monetization , CEO and co - laminitis Dan Silvertown said in an interview . Although that ’s not something it ’s extend to yet , it ’s looking to get away from the common route that social apps take by leaning into advert . “ The touch and former guess is to not do that , ” he sound out .
The ship’s company ’s ethos may have an quondam - school tactile property to it , but some of the mechanics of how the app go are anything but .
Some of these are interesting technical details that stem out of survive experience . As we’vepreviously recounted , Silvertown co - founded the app with his brother Ben after Ben found himself , while traveling in Asia , longing for the exemption of a point - and - shoot camera that did n’t bind him to always look at an app to see who “ like ” his pictures , or what other people were doing , and most of all seemingly leading his life to capture and deal the second on an app , not the other way around . That led him and Dan to looking at how to recreate the parallel experience through a smartphone .
Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Although there is no scope in the app to edit pictures or constantly recapture snaps if you ’re unhappy with how they turn out at first , there is some interesting discourse happening behind the scenes .
On the other hired man , some of the mechanics in the app are not as praiseworthy .
Lapse has fare under some scrutiny — see our storyhere — for how it has used growth - hacking and forced invites to blow up the number of installs of its app . That proficiency unquestionably served to grow the turn of drug user — it murder the top of the U.S. and U.K. iOS app stores ( the only food market and the only program where it is available ) at one point , although it ’s arguablehow sustainableor user - well-disposed that can be for any company longer terminus if the app itself does n’t offer anything useful and interesting to stick around .
picture - share app Lapse hits top of the App Store by forcing you to ask in your friends
For Lapse , the lesson was definitely learned , although in its defense , Silvertown still maintains that the startup had to start somewhere : Since the premise is to have a way to share your pictures with a small group of Quaker with no discovery provender , if you download the app and have no contacts using it , where do you go from there ?
These days , he claims that the app — which has guide on more “ journaling ” characteristic , giving user a way to fundamentally build albums that you may keep private or partake in with a small group of people — no longer require forced invites to apply , not least because there is now a critical mass of people and it ’s see its own virality .
However , my own experience was that for wholly new users — perhaps specially consumers that are sensitive to deal datum on societal apps they do n’t already sleep with — it ’s still tricky to sift through the app ’s obscure patterns to visualise out how to apply it without apportion at least a couple of name calling and numbers .
Force one patch of data out of a somebody , and you ’ve lost trust very early on . ( “ Buh - bye , Lapse ! ” one of my more cranky and thwarted friends narrate me when I asked her to download the app to associate with me . )
That bring us to another important point : These daytime , we are at a notable crossroads in the world of consumer apps . consumer have become all too aware of what they give up when they use most consumer apps ( a lot of personal data point , essentially ) . Yes , the most dominant names in the business are outsized in their scale with jillion of exploiter , but for the most part — Snapchat is maybe the biggest exception — they have moved far beyond a focus on sharing with pocket-sized chemical group of Friend , and none of them are without circle of bells and whistling that move users out from what calculate real anymore . Some of the most democratic apps , moreover , appear to be slowing down when it comes to growth and engagement .
Does all that leave an opening for at least a distich of instrumentalist who are unforced to give users a simpler alternative ? BeReal , Dispo and a few others that have tackled that estimate appear to have lose some steam for now , but Lapse still believes there is a lot more to come for its take on the conception .
And it looks like its investors do , too :
“ What ’s so interesting is that most mellow - scale platforms , whether it ’s Instagram or Facebook , a luck of these in the beginning started out life as places where we would keep up to date with our champion , and then slowly they kind of became the other stuff we be intimate them for today , ” such as sites for news , or amusement or to keep up with influencers , Jacob Andreou , a general partner at Greylock , said in an audience .
“ I believe what ’s interesting about that is it ’s left a hole where there is no place where you may go to just check out your champion ’ profile , see what they ’re up to . That ’s also an amazing station to start because that ’s where all these really big platforms commence . ” He believes that the mechanics of “ seize a photo , one at a time , and catch later when the exposure develop , can lour the barrier to sharing , using that to make this amazing place where you’re able to stay up to date with your friend . ”
