A new app called Locket has topped the charts on Apple’s App Store, after doing the rounds of TikTok. The app lets you view photos of your friends and family directly on your home screen. It basically makes use of Apple’s widget system to transform your iPhone’s home screen into a mini social networking platform.
Locket is unlike other photo-sharing apps which make you a slave to endless browsing. It lets you share live pictures with a maximum of five close friends. The photos that you share will show up on your friend’s home screen via the Locket widget.
This new private photo-sharing app is developed by Matt Moss, who previously won Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference student scholarship. TechCrunch reports that Moss, a recent UC Santa Barbara alum, built the app as a gift for his long-distance girlfriend.
The app launched on New Year’s Day and saw more than 2 million users signing up for the app in less than two weeks. Moss attributes Locket’s sudden popularity to TikTok, where his video showing off the app racked up 100,000 views in two days.
Not Like Other Social Media Apps
Moss said that Locket isn’t like other social media apps such as Instagram or Snapchat, where you have to keep in touch with hundreds of friends.
Here’s what he had to say about his app:
“The idea of making something that’s more geared towards those five closest people, or those 10 closest people, and then providing a way to make your phone feel more personal and geared towards people instead of these apps — I think there’s a real appetite for that.”
Locket is available for free on the App Store. Currently, it has 3.3 rating, with many complaining about problems with setting up the widget and experiencing bugs when it released. It now appears that the bugs have been ironed out and the onboarding issues have been resolved. But proceed with caution and only add those whom you trust. You don’t want unsolicited pictures to pop up on your phone screen for everyone around you to see.
Has TikTok made you download Locket yet? Let us know in the comments.
[Via TechCrunch]
