\nRetro is a deeply personal photo journaling app for close friends<\/br>
\n2023-07-09 22:01:56<\/br><\/p>\n
When is the<\/span> last time you uploaded your vacation photos to a social network? And which app do you use to keep up with long-distance friends? A new social app called Retro<\/a> wants to help you share what\u2019s happening in your life with a small group of friends and family members.<\/p>\n I have been using Retro for a few days and it feels like a deeply personal experience that has the potential to put a smile on your face \u2014 something that rarely happens on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter or YouTube.<\/p>\n The app will be available very soon on iOS. In the meantime, anyone can sign up to the waitlist and reserve their username<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2018, I wrote that social networks were no longer social<\/a> as they had become too much focused on engagement and growth. \u201cNow that we\u2019ve reached a social network dead end, it\u2019s time to build our own digital house,\u201d I wrote at the time.<\/p>\n In many ways, private groups on messaging apps have become the default way to share photos with groups of friends or your extended family. But that solution doesn\u2019t scale well.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing that we\u2019re trying to do is just be the single best place to catch up with friends and family,\u201d Retro\u2019s co-founder and CEO Nathan Sharp told me. \u201cOne of the things that Retro does to make that process easier is you don\u2019t have to ask yourself \u2014 which message thread do I have to share this to? And manage three to four to five threads of different, non-overlapping groups of friends.\u201d<\/p>\n Retro has been founded by two former Instagram team members. Nathan Sharp, Retro\u2019s CEO, played an instrumental role in the launch of Stories on Instagram back in 2016. He then assumed different roles in product management and growth for several Meta products.<\/p>\n Retro\u2019s CTO Ryan Olson was also working on Instagram when the social app added Stories. He was involved with many Instagram launches over the years as the iOS tech lead. More recently, Olson was Instagram\u2019s director of engineering until May 2022.<\/p>\n Retro has already raised a pre-seed and seed round with Thrive Capital, Dylan Field, Scribble Ventures, Box Group, Imaginary Ventures, Coalition, Conviction, Copper, Positive Sum and several angel investors. The company doesn\u2019t want to share how much money it has raised.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Retro<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cOne of our favorite moments in building [Instagram Stories] was this moment before we actually launched to the public,\u201d Sharp said. \u201cIt was amazing to see our friends who were also co-workers starting to share photos as Stories in ways that they weren\u2019t sharing anywhere else. And you just got to know them much better. And it just felt like this magical time when you had a window into someone else\u2019s life that you didn\u2019t have before.\u201d<\/p>\n But if you have an Instagram account, you know that Stories have changed significantly over the years. In addition to your best friends, chances are you also follow creators, media publications, concert venues, restaurants and brands on Instagram.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of times what you see over time is that whenever an app hosts both types of content, the entertainment content from creators sometimes crowds out the content from friends,\u201d Sharp said.<\/p>\n Retro is a photo-sharing app. That might sound a bit old school in 2023, but many entrepreneurs are still trying to crack the code when it comes to photo sharing on mobile. Some newer apps, such as BeReal<\/a> and Locket<\/a>, have found ways to innovate on this challenge that is as old as the smartphone.<\/p>\n When you open Retro, you won\u2019t find any button to capture photos and videos. In fact, there\u2019s no way to create a post either. Instead, users add photos and videos to this week\u2019s film strip that is displayed at the top of the screen. And sharing is as easy as selecting a bunch of photos in a private conversation and hitting send.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want our composer to be as lightweight and low pressure as possible. So you can select multiple things very quickly. You don\u2019t have to edit them. You don\u2019t have to filter them, crop, caption. You can just kind of say \u2018here\u2019s the 10 things I did this week\u2019 and post them within a few seconds,\u201d Olson told me.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Retro<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Essentially, Retro encourages you to select the most meaningful photos and videos in your camera roll. When it\u2019s time to capture a photo, you can just use the default camera on your phone. You don\u2019t need to open a separate app and change your habits.<\/p>\n \u201c[Users] already know and understand their system camera really well. They can easily access it from their lock screen,\u201d Sharp said. \u201cWe wanted to be different and opinionated \u2014 we wanted to encourage people to stay in the moment. With some different apps, a lot of times you feel some pressure to kind of annotate or use a creative tool. You stop your dinner, or you stop what you\u2019re doing to filter it, caption it and then share it.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s in the name of the app. Retro lets you share photos retrospectively, at the end of the day or even at the end of the week.<\/p>\n As your friends start adding photos, Retro automatically regroups all the moments that they\u2019ve shared that week. At any point in time, you can tap on someone\u2019s card and view all the photos and videos of the week. Some users are only going to share two photos, while others will be more enthusiastic and share dozens of photos.<\/p>\n \u201cFor other people, we put their full stories behind a single card,\u201d Sharp told me. \u201cThey don\u2019t feel like they can kind of spam the feed or create noise in the feed by sharing too much. So basically there\u2019s one card for you, whether you\u2019ve shared one photo or 50 photos, and people who share 50 photos feel more comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n As you start using Retro more regularly, your profile will look more and more like a good old photo journal with your life\u2019s most memorable moments. And it turns out that other users are also doing the same thing.<\/p>\n By default, you can view your friends\u2019 last four weeks of photos, which means that you can share photos without feeling too much pressure as they\u2019ll be hidden after four weeks. Unlike photo albums on Facebook, they won\u2019t be viewable for years and years. Unlike Instagram stories, they won\u2019t disappear after 24 hours either.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s almost like a pendulum of ephemerality. During the early days of social, everything was permanent. And then after a few years of that, you started to be like: \u2018Oh, maybe I don\u2019t want that.\u2019 Maybe that photo from five years ago is actually embarrassing to me now,\u201d Olson said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so it\u2019s swung really hard towards this 24-hour ephemerality where things just disappear very quickly, which is maybe too far. Maybe it\u2019s okay if I can see something from a week ago or a month ago. And we\u2019re trying to hit this sweet spot in the middle where you can still catch up on what someone\u2019s done recently, but there\u2019s kind of comfort in knowing that it\u2019s not there forever.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, in some cases, you may want to share more than that. If your spouse or your BFF is also using Retro, you can give a key to your full profile. Your key holders will be able to see back more than four weeks in the past.<\/p>\n Over the next few months, Retro will be able to tap into this highly relevant collection of photos. For instance, the startup will be able to resurface important memories of the past year or two. Retro could even leverage its social graph to revive important moments that you spent with your closest friends.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tGiving that kind of nudge makes you feel comfortable because you know everybody else is in the same boat and needs to share just a little moment to participate.\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNathan Sharp<\/cite>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n But Retro only works if everyone is posting something<\/em> on the platform. Some people will be oversharers, but at least everyone should participate. That\u2019s why the startup nudges you to share at least one photo per week to view your friends\u2019 photos.<\/p>\n \u201cBy nudging everybody to share, it lowers the pressure of what you feel like you have to share. Giving that kind of nudge makes you feel comfortable because you know everybody else is in the same boat and needs to share just a little moment to participate,\u201d Sharp said.<\/p>\n And this is key to understanding Retro\u2019s future. Having the perfect concept paired with a great design won\u2019t be enough to turn this neat social app into a global consumer success. Retro will have to attract enough users and keep them engaged over the long haul so that it feels like a happy place on your phone.<\/p>\n \u201cWe often talk about this metaphor of a wedding dance floor as a great way to think about consumer social space. A lot of things have to be right to have a successful wedding dance floor. You have to know the song, you have to know how to dance to it,\u201d Sharp said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere usually has to be other people out on the floor first. Usually they can\u2019t be like professional dancers or people that are so good that you can\u2019t really compete with them in terms of acrobatic dancing. But another important component is that you don\u2019t want a bunch of people sitting around at the edge of the room at tables, looking at the people dancing and judging.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/br><\/br><\/br><\/p>\nA track record in the consumer social space<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nHow Retro works<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nSwapping photo journals<\/h2>\n