Lapse: A Digital Disposable Camera
Lapse is a social media app available on mobile platforms, with features similar to Snapchat. What makes Lapse unique is its invite-only approach. While you can find the app on your device's app store, you must invite at least five friends to get started and create an account. This has both benefits and disadvantages. The benefit of this is that the app feels a bit more exclusive than Snapchat or Instagram. The invite-only feature of this app presents a disadvantage for those who do not want to bother others with the text. I'll touch more on this in my section on recommendations. The app is meant to replicate the experience of a disposable camera in a digital environment. When you take pictures, they move to the digital darkroom, where you have to wait for them to develop before you can post them. You only get to see how the photo turned out once it has finished developing.
Design & Features
Lapse has a simple yet fun design. The colors are dark and minimal, which appeals to a younger target audience. You open the app on a home screen with a camera, flash options, search, inbox, journals, community, and profile buttons. These sections are appropriately spaced and do not feel cumbersome on the home screen. The profile tab has fun customization with fast cycling cover photos and the ability to add interactive emojis to your profile picture. It also features a "Vibe" counter. The Vibe counter is just a number counter in the corner that encourages you to interact with others by sending a Vibe. You can send two Vibes a day.
| Screenshot: Lapse Landing Page |
The community tab features photos from all over the Lapse community. These photos are submitted by users and are selected by Lapse to be featured. Many of the photos in the community tab are well-taken and creative. The community tab also features your friend's photos, though not as easily displayed. You can also send a form of likes and reactions to the photos of the community tab or your friends. When doing this, you can choose any emoji from your keyboard, and you are not limited to only one reaction per photo. You may send any amount you want, even holding the button to rapidly send hundreds at a time.
| Screenshot: Lapse Community Tab |
My Recommendations
The app is relatively new, and I have some recommendations for improving it overall.
- Currently, you only have the option of three different zooms. 0.5x, 1x, and 2x zoom. I am unsure if this is because my phone's lenses have those Zooms natively or if those are the default options for everyone; however, I believe the ability to use digital zoom would help users when taking photos.
- The community tab is a good place to house the photos friends take; however, currently, your friend's photos are limited to the upper portion of the tab and must be clicked on to view them, similar to viewing a friend's Snaps on Snapchat. This is a recent change, as there used to be a tab that showed your friend's photos easily, the same way as the community photos. I suggest making a section in the community tab to swipe to that houses all of your friend's photos so you can easily scroll through them.
- A nearby feature would be a nice way to see what others around your area are posting or doing. This would help users find places to see and things to do and inspire more of a community. This may be unfeasible at the moment as it has an invite-only feature, and because it is a newer app, there may not be enough users for this feature to feel robust.
- The invite-only feature is a hurdle for prospective users. Personally, I think that inviting at least five friends to the platform is not ideal for those who do not have many close friends or do not like bothering others by sending links to join unknown apps. It is a form of marketing that worked for me as I only learned of the app from an invite from a friend. Luckily, I experienced a bug that let me send five invites to my girlfriend, so I did not need to send them to anyone else. I would either remove this feature altogether or reduce the number of required invites to one or two people.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the app feels fun as you do not have the pressure to post something perfect or edited. The requirement to wait for your photos to develop keeps you from being on your phone too much, as you just take the photo and wait at least 30 minutes before you can post it to your journal. I also really enjoy the like system. Having the ability to send whatever number of likes you want helps decrease the importance of likes. On Instagram, if you do not get enough likes, you may feel like the photo was bad. On Lapse, the likes you get do not make you feel bad, as you know that those with tons of likes may have gotten them from a small amount of people. I once sent 3,000 likes to a photo because you can easily do so by holding the button down until you don't feel like holding it anymore. The app appears to want you to focus on the moment, and I feel that it does achieve this and provides a fun platform to connect with friends. Lapse achieves its goal of feeling like a disposable camera on your phone.
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