He chalks this up to the fact that many early users felt a sense of responsibility, and because those who beta tested it - tech folks, UX researchers, community managers, the chronically online - felt ready for a break from the way social media currently operates. So far "everyone's using it as intended," said Rob Focht, a UX designer out of Philadelphia. "You don't have to put on a perfect facade." "I have found almost immediately the community at Dispo so supportive and creative," Luke told Protocol. One tester, Amanda Luke, started her own community roll called "Confession Booth," where users could write out a confession ("I wish I were more confident") and snap a photo of it to add to the collection. The early users who spoke to Protocol mentioned a huge variety in the kind of community rolls they've come across: one for pasta photos, called "Impasta Syndrome" one for pictures of socks one for thrifting. To him, Dispo is more about "experiencing photography with friends." According to some of the early users, though, experiencing photography with friends and strangers alike is the social aspect that drew them to the app in the first place.
"Other apps use photos, but they're about shopping or messaging or entertainment," he told Protocol. Anyone can create a community roll and add collaborators, and anyone can follow a community roll (even without following the users themselves).ĬEO Daniel Liss believes one of the differentiating factors for Dispo, in the broader social media landscape, is that it isn't a social app - it's a photography app. Daily at 9 a.m., users log on to see their pictures from the day before after they get "developed." They can send pictures to their own library, or add them to "community rolls," which is where most of the social interactions happen. Dispo's TestFlight reached capacity after just a few days, largely thanks to a massive surge in downloads from Japan - more than 5,000 in an hour - over its launch weekend.ĭispo works like a disposable camera.
Dispo also got a buy-in from Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian: It raised $4 million in October 2020, and raised $20 million in series A funding at a valuation of about $200 million, according to Axios. And that might be what helps it stand out in an oversaturated market of social networking apps.Ī post shared by David Dobrik relaunched app has a new name and a team of all-star developers, including alumni from Adobe, Byte, Raya and more. But it runs pretty differently than any other image-sharing app out there. It's still an app, and it's still social media, and it encourages documenting your life. It probably isn't going to fix our collective online brains and their inclination to share everything about our private lives with others online. Pop-up museums litter cities with photo ops for posts "camera eats first" everything can be a cute Instagram story everything is content.Īnd to be clear, Dispo - a buzzy new photography app that just came out of beta - is still a place for content. Doing something "for the gram" - scaling buildings, posting the same cringe picture over and over - became the norm. More recently, it's essentially become a shopping mall, with brands falling over themselves to be heard through the noise. After Facebook acquired it in 2012, it has turned into a competition of getting as many likes as possible (using the same formula over and over: post the best highly-curated, edited photos with the funniest captions). Instagram was once a place to share Starbucks cups and high-contrast pet photos.