Lapse is a new, free social media application developed by Ben Silvertown. This app functions similarly to a digital camera using a filter it applies on all of the pictures taken on Lapse. When someone takes a picture on Lapse, it is sent to the “darkroom” to get “developed.” Once the picture is developed, the user can decide if they want to archive or post their picture.
Lapse was founded by brothers Dan and Ben Silvertwon in 2021 in England. It’s a privately held company, and it was valued at $1 billion earlier this year according to Pitchbook. Annoyingly, Lapse is an app exclusively for iPhones.
This app is just another way to make most teenagers feel the need to take pictures of and film every part of their lives. Teenagers already have the camera app, Snapchat, Tiktok, VSCO, and Instagram, so they do not need another social media platform on which to keep up the look of a somewhat perfect looking life.
Gabrielle Sosland, a sophomore at HBHA, has been using Lapse since April of 2023.
Sosland heard about Lapse from a friend and said, “she had sent it to me,” and “the app told her to share it with friends.” Sosland says she loves Lapse because of the enhancing filter it puts on all of her pictures, the lack of pressure the app has, and the way it differentiates from other social media apps like Instagram.
“[T]he whole point of lapse is to create a kind of social media where you can effortlessly take pictures” says Sosland. She shares that Lapse differs from Instagram and VSCO (another photo editing and posting app) because it doesn’t stress having followers and getting likes. Posting on Lapse is for the user’s own enjoyment of seeing your own and your friends’ pictures on the feed.
Sosland enjoys being able to take pictures of things she finds aesthetically pleasing, funny, or important memories that she saves on Lapse. She says she loves how on each person’s profile, or “journal,” they can have a photo montage instead of just a singular profile picture. She also loves the music aspect of profiles on the app.
Meanwhile, I decided to try using Lapse for a week myself.
I like the way the profile on this app is unique from other social media apps. The “carousel” (multiple selected photos chosen) is more than just a profile pic, and is a good way to display what you like to spend time doing and who your friends are. The song aspect of the profile shares an extra hint of what you are like as a person.
Similar to Instagram’s “highlights” feature (Instagram stories grouped together on someone’s Instagram profile, people can see them after 24 hours), Lapse has an “albums” section available on a profile. I love the ability to be able to save pictures on the app in an organized fashion. An understandable layout makes it easy to navigate others’ profiles and find pictures on your own account.
One complaint I have about Lapse is the attempt to make it seem so similar to Polaroids. The beauty embellishing filter is fun and cute on pictures with your friends, but like a Polaroid, the pictures don’t develop for a certain amount of time. Which is annoying because the user has to wait to see what their pictures turned out to look like.
Having a picture from your phone with a Polaroid filter can be used on multiple other apps that don’t take time to develop. If someone didn’t want to wait for their photos to develop, they could easily use a different app to be able to have the Polaroid aesthetic and filter on whatever picture they would want.
On the other hand, it’s a nice surprise to go back to the app and see the pictures you forgot you had taken. The user gets a little surprise from some cute pictures that are saved to the app. Users can post, archive, or just add them to their albums (labeled groups of pictures taken on Lapse) for people to see off of their feed.
Posting on Instagram has a lot more pressure for users than Lapse, and Instagram is more popular. Not even close to as many people have Lapse,so it’s just another app that users will feel the need to keep up with. Some people might think it is fun. But overall, I find it an annoyance. It is just another app that will take up storage on my phone and flood my messages. It’s another app that I will feel like I have to film every aspect of my life on. Regardless of the considered “no-pressure” on this app, everyone knows that it will just be used as another app to stalk and compare everyone on. It is another way to put out that perfect looking lifestyle everyone pretends to have.
