The Apple App Store Top Photo and Video Apps table lists Lapse, a social media app, alongside Instagram and Photoshop.
Lapse mixes the fun of a disposable camera with social media and uses a unique way to hire people to give you an experience that is different from any other popular social media app on the market right now.
Lapse announced this week that it had raised $30 million in a round of funding led by Greylock, an early investor in Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and DST Global Partners. This comes after the app became very popular very quickly in 2023.
Here’s everything you need to know about Lapse, whether you got an invite from a friend and want to learn more about it, are thinking about downloading it, or just want to know why it’s getting so much attention.
What does Lapse mean?
“Invite-only disposable camera” is what the app’s website says Lapse is. Lapse is a lot like Dispo in that it lets you take quick pictures with a throwaway camera and then wait for them to “develop” before you can see them.
You can swipe left or right, like on Tinder, to either save a picture or put it on your “Journal” so your friends can see it. The goal of this style is to make social media more real. All the photos you see posted haven’t been changed in any way, and the app only shows photos with the disposable camera filter that it applies automatically.
The most unique thing about the app is that it’s invite-only, which means that you can only use it after inviting five people and doing some other things in your phone’s settings.
What does a Lapse picture look like?
As you can see in the picture below of my lunch, the photos have a filter added to them instantly that makes them look like they were taken with a disposable camera. Because that’s how they show up on the feed, most people choose to take pictures that way.
Is the app Lapse free?
The Lapse app is free to download from the App Store. But even after you download the app, you still need to go through a few steps to be able to use it.
Does the Lapse app work on both iOS and Android?
Lapse is only available for iPhone users right now, which is a shame. You can join a queue on the Lapse site, though, if you use Android and think this app might be interesting to you.
The company Lapse tells Android users not to get any “Lapse” apps from the Google Play Store because they are fake.
How do I get to Lapse?
The game Store is where you can get the game. But that step is only half the fight. After downloading the app, you have to follow a set of steps to use the software. Some of these actions are asking friends, letting them use your camera and contacts, and putting the Lapse widget on your lock screen so you can quickly take pictures while you’re out and about.
The number of friends you can invite changes based on when you sign up. I had to invite five friends when I signed up. Nina, my coworker, tried to sign up soon after, but she had to send a call to eight friends in order to get started.
The Lapse website says that the game is in “Friends only Early Access” mode while the company works to “iron things out” and make sure that everyone has the best experience possible.
There has been some debate, though, about how the app hires people; some have said it’s like a pyramid plan. Still, I liked using the app, so I didn’t mind inviting people to get access.
How do I use Lapse?
As soon as you meet all the standards, you can begin taking pictures. The interface is easy to use, and there are small demos all over the app to help you get started.
When you open Lapse, you see a video screen where you can take a picture, just like on Instagram or Snapchat. The picture then needs to “develop” in the “darkroom,” which can take one to three hours.
You’ll be told when the shots are ready. After making a choice, you can swipe left to save the pick or right to add it to your blog, where your friends can see it.
These journals are divided into sections for each month, which means that all of your chosen pictures are stored together in monthly “photo dumps.”
You can also keep adding friends, which is easy to do because Lapse lets you know when someone from your contact list joins the app.
How does the Lapse feed look?
You can move around in the Lapse feed by scrolling up, just like you do on TikTok or Instagram. You’ll see pictures that your friends have chosen to share or “Journal” as you scroll through the feed.
There will be a group of all the shots that were developed at the same time. So, you can scroll through the photos the person journaled from a certain “film roll” in the same way you would on Instagram. After that, you can add images or notes that only the person who made the post can see.
Do people follow you on Lapse?
Lapse doesn’t let you have friends, which is meant to make the app feel more natural by not letting you use filters or plan your posts ahead of time. “Lapse is for Friends not FollowersTM” is what the app’s title in the App Store says.
Can you post pictures that already appear on Lapse?
No, that’s not what the app is for. Anything you write in your blog or post is a picture that was taken right then and there and developed hours later without being changed or fixed.
How does your Lapse picture look?
You can add a profile picture, text, emojis, music, and photo “selects” to make your profile unique. These will show up as a banner behind your profile picture. Putting Lapse pictures that you want to stand out together can also be put in albums. In the end, people will be able to see all of the pictures you “journaled” set up by month.
When did Lapse come out?
The first version of Lapse came out in 2021. But since the first release, some changes have been made. In June 2023, the new version went live. The new version has been a big hit; by the end of September 2023, it was at the top of the “Top Free Apps” and “Top Photo & Video Apps” charts in the Apple App Store. It’s not as famous as it used to be, but it’s still on the “Top Photo & Video Apps” chart in the App Store.
