It’s not often that a new photo-sharing app captures my attention. Most offer some mashup of what you already get with Instagram or TikTok – it makes sense given their overall dominance in this space. The Lapse Disposable Camera app promises users a way to share with actual friends and not followers, color me intrigued. After a few weeks of using the app, I have some thoughts.
The Big Picture: Lapse Disposable Camera App Threads the Needle Between Sharing and Privacy
Lapse’s premise is simple – take pictures in the moment, “develop” them, and share with your friend group. It’s like a group chat that you get to moderate. The images themselves are edited to resemble the disposable film camera look of yesteryear. If that’s the look you’re going for, then the Lapse Disposable Camera app will surely meet your needs. Some of the app’s features feel a bit gimmicky – specifically, gamifying the journal feature, and the “Shared Roll” will give you a complex if you don’t have enough friends in your group. That said, I tip my hat to the team behind Lapse for creating a space that’s meant for sharing but not for public consumption.
If you’re interested in trying out the Lapse Camera App, you can download it for free on iOS.
Pros
- “Friends not Followers” ethos is a good step in reclaiming personal privacy
- Super simple interface takes away the guesswork for making photographs
- Options to share to traditional social media networks
Cons
- Requires knowing or inviting six users on the Lapse app
- Gamification can get a little annoying
- Good luck getting everyone you know to download another app
- No Android app available
Gear Used
This is an iOS-only app, and for this review, I used my personal Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max. I also sacrificed my contact list and begged EIC Chris Gampat to be my friend.
Getting Started with the Lapse Disposable Camera App
One of the immediate things that will jump out when setting up an account is that Lapse requires you to have or invite six people before you can finish setting up your account. The idea is that you will have a group large enough to begin sharing and not feel like you’re posting to the void. In practice, it feels like a data grab designed to pad Lapse’s install base numbers, and I’m not thrilled by this. To their credit, Lapse’s privacy statement explicitly says that all data is on-device and not uploaded to any servers or sold to third parties. Also, you can change permissions at any time.
Ease of Use
Honestly, if you’re familiar with the iPhone’s basic camera app settings, the Lapse interface will feel like a second home. Going from the top down, you’ll find a button at the top left to invite friends to the app, a search button, and a notifications button at the top right.
Going down the screen you’ll come to an expandable menu that hides camera settings and a timer, a camera selection button to cycle between rear-facing and front-facing cameras, a button to cycle between rear cameras (ultra-wide, normal, and telephoto on my iPhone 13 Pro Max), and a flash button (including the options for Off, Always On, and Auto).
Just underneath, you’ll be presented with the option for “Memories” the main camera roll option, and any “Start Roll.” There’s an icon for recently taken images that are being “developed” towards the bottom left, a large shutter button at the center, and an “Instant Camera” option that allows you to instantly develop and share a picture with a friend – it even includes an instant film “frame” for your picture. Lastly, there are the “system” menu options at the very bottom of the app’s interface – from left to right: Memories, which houses your photos and lets you access your Journal and Darkroom, Chat, Camera, Friends – which if you’re like me and don’t have many friends on the app, connects you with the Lapse community, and your public profile (which is then shared with the community).
Private Sharing is a Thing
Yes, I’ll be the first to admit that the term “private sharing” is an oxymoron of sorts – you’re in effect creating another online footprint to create a private platform to share your snapshots. But in function, it makes a lot of sense. The last decade and a half have trained people, and young people particularly, that everything we do is made for public consumption – for shares, for likes, for follows. It has created a generation of people with little to no expectation of privacy, and worse yet, to turn every life moment into some kind of social media-ready content.
Lapse’s biggest and most innovative feature in my testing is the Start Roll feature that allows you to invite your friends to take pictures on the same “roll of film.” I liken this to when you’d hand your friends a disposable camera at the beginning of the night, and after a week (or more) has passed by, and it’s found, you get to be surprised when you develop the film. The Start Roll feature works in much the same way. If you start a shared roll, you’ll determine for how long the roll will be open to the group, ranging from three to 24 hours. During this time, the images will not be available (“Developed”) until the time expires. While the roll is active, all invitees to the roll will be able to snap new photos to share with the group.
It’s a simple enough premise that speaks volumes about what today’s youth wants from technology: privacy. Sure, there have been other apps that promised social sharing and privacy in the past – Snapchat immediately comes to mind – but this feels different. Right now, Lapse isn’t interested in monetization and therefore gives you one of the purest social sharing experiences you can find. Privacy or unlisted/non-public posts are the default, not an afterthought. That alone makes this app worth a download.
Unfortunately, we’re also at a point of saturation—there’s really no need for another camera app, and our group chats technically still work for both iOS and Android users—no new app required. I think it’s a solid concept, but you and your crew will absolutely need to agree that this will be the platform where you’ll share your pictures.
Additional Samples
All images were taken with the Lapse app, and the “filter” effects were auto-applied by the app.
Declaration of Journalistic Intent
The Phoblographer is one of the last standing dedicated photography publications that speaks to both art and tech in our articles. We put declarations up front in our reviews to adhere to journalistic standards that several publications abide by. These help you understand a lot more about what we do:
- At the time of publishing this review, the Lapse Disposable Camera app IS NOT running direct-sold advertising with the Phoblographer. This doesn’t affect our reviews anyway and it never has in our 15 years of publishing our articles. This article is in no way sponsored.
- Note that this isn’t necessarily our final review of the app. It will be updated, and it’s more of an in-progress review than anything. In fact, almost all our reviews are like this.
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