Lapse Is a New Approach to Photo Sharing Apps
In recent years there has been a shift from sharing everything with everyone on social media to a more thoughtful and private approach: photos of birthdays, weddings and holidays are now just as likely to be shared in small group chats or private stories as they are in personal stories. are in public Facebook or Instagram slideshows.
In other words, there are opportunities for new types of social networks, and that’s where Lapse comes in: Available only on iOS for now, it’s aimed at “friends, not followers,” advertising itself as a “private photo journal” where you share your favorites moments and memories with a small and select group of people.
Lapse also adds a twist when it comes to the photos that the app is based on, because you can’t actually see them right away. Instead, your photos are “processed” after a few hours (you’re notified when they’re ready), with the idea being that you’re more in the moment when you take the photos and spend less time adding filters and captions and posting photos on the Internet.
The app has now attracted millions of users and several headlines in the tech press – is it the next big social media success story or another app that will burn brightly for a while before being forgotten? If you want to give it a try, it’s easy to get started.
Getting started with Lapse
The Lapse registration process is straightforward, although you will have to provide a phone number to create an account. You’ll need to choose a username (which isn’t already taken) and you’ll get a little idea of how the basics of the app work.
A few setup steps are a little frustrating: you won’t be able to log into the app and look around until you’ve invited five friends to join you in Lapse (so warn them they’ll be spammed with the invite link), and you’ll also need to add the Lapse widget to lock screen before it launches for the first time (you can always remove the widget later, but still).
With all this taken care of, you are ready to start exploring. First, take a look at the Feed tab—don’t worry if none of your friends have signed up for Lapse yet, because you can tap Favorites to see snaps shared by people around the world. Below each image there are options to add reactions or notes (recent notes appear in the bottom left corner of the image).
Click on any Lapse username you see to go to that person’s profile, where they will have a list of their friends, a profile picture, a short slideshow of images that have been made public, and a personal journal (which you won’t receive). I won’t be able to see if you are not friends with this person). The direct messaging feature is also available on profile pages.
In the Journal tab, you can customize your profile and choose how the world sees you: you can add things like your age and where you went to college if you want, as well as a short biography. Clicking the three dots in the top left corner gives you access to a short list of account options.
Your profile will be a little sparse until you start taking a few photos inside the app, but you can choose a few images to serve as your profile’s header – these can be pulled from the gallery on your iPhone, as well as from the archive. in Laps itself.
Photos, magazines and albums
Go to the Camera screen and you’re ready to take your first Lapse photo. It works the same as almost any other app: a large shutter button, zoom controls just above it, and a flash setting on the right. The thumbnail on the left is where you can view your latest photos.
Take a photo and you won’t be able to see it right away – instead it begins to “evolve” and your images become visible at several random points throughout the day. Just tap the image thumbnail to the left of the shutter button on the camera screen to see where your pictures are located.
Once your photos are “processed,” you can display them on screen, where you can add notes and tags as needed. Swipe left to archive the image or right to share it – the same options as the buttons below are available, plus the option to delete if you really don’t like how your photo turned out.
If you share a photo, it will be added to your journal for your friends to see, and Lapse will also post a monthly photo dump to your profile. If you archive an image, it will be added to your personal snapshot collection. You can also submit images to be featured on Lapse’s public feed.
When you start creating a library of images, they will appear on the same screen as the images you are processing. You can add images to albums and export them from the app, however you can’t post old photos to your journal once they’ve been archived (you’ll also notice an “instant” option when taking photos, which lets you share them as Polaroid-style snaps) .
There’s a wide variety of options here and some good ideas on how photo sharing should work. The key, as always, will be to get enough of your friends and family to sign up for yet another social media app, and for now Android users are completely missing out on that experience.