Locketa private social networking app for friends, has won over Gen Alpha users after launching its latest feature, Rollcall.
The app, which allows friends to share photos that are then displayed on home screen widgets, first topped the App Store charts in early 2022, taking advantage of Apple’s widget system to form the basis of its social network. Instead of updates sent via push notifications, the app widget will update to show your friends’ recently posted photos. This, in turn, would drive engagement back into the app, prompting users to share their own photos in return.
Locket’s Rollcall feature takes a similar approach by turning Apple’s platform features into social networking tools, explains CEO Matt Moss. A former Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) student scholarship winner, Moss understands that new formats can help attract users and engage people.
Rollcall prompts users to share their favorite photos from the past week and leverages an iOS feature called Live Activities. This allows the app to use the iPhone’s lock screen to grab users’ attention. Introduced in iOS 18, Live Activities allow iOS apps to offer frequent information updates in places you can see, such as the lock screen and Dynamic Island (the black bar at the top of the screen).
Apple originally envisioned Live Activities as a way for apps with real-time information to update their users — for example, with information about their Uber arrival or pizza delivery. However, some apps have used the technology in unique ways, such as adding a virtual pet parties at Dynamic Island, or displaying the lyrics in real time for the song you’re listening to directly on the lock screen.
For Locket, however, Live Activities becomes the modern version of push notification.
“Every Sunday, we’ll take over the lock screen and you’ll have this nice Live Activity that appears right on the iPhone home page,” Moss said. “It’s similar to the widget [as it’s] using Apple technology to be in front of people and then letting you share those moments that you wouldn’t have shared,” he told TechCrunch in an interview in the halls of the TechCrunch Disrupt conference last week.
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Using the technology in this way has already proven successful for Locket, which has north of 91 million lifetime installs on iOS and Android, per Appfigures estimates. In the first week of Rollcall, Locket saw over a million shares benefit from the feature, the company said.
Additionally, Moss said that over 25% of the app’s active users now post a Rollcall each week.
“Live Activity draws people in a lot more,” Moss said. “And it’s fun, because as your friends share, they’ll feel like we’re all doing it together.”
About 80% of Rollcall’s initial active users were classified as Gen Alpha.
The founder noted that there are some differences between how Gen Alpha and Gen Z use Locket.
“I think the big difference is… [being] the accompanying track versus the primary. We have so many more users now [for whom] Locket is like their main way of connecting with their friends, Moss explained. “Sending photos directly. Sharing photos with 10 or 20 of their best friends. I think that was a big difference for us,” he added.
With Rollcall gaining traction out of the gate, the company is now exploring how to use the feature as a springboard for other experiences beyond photos. For example, Moss says adding video support is an obvious next step, but he’s also thinking about how to incorporate things like music, favorite places you’ve visited, or messages designed to help you remember things that happened during the week.
While Locket has no plans to support AI-generated photos or videos like Sora or Meta AI, the company is looking at how AI could be used in other ways — like creating collages or gathering photo memories.
“While these things may consume a lot of attention,” Moss said, referring to AI applications, “there’s something so fundamental and fundamental about communicating and connecting with real people in the world. There’s always going to be a role for it and there’s always going to be a demand that people have.”
The company is also thinking about how Locket can turn users’ virtual connections with friends into more real touchpoints — even if it’s something as simple as reminding users to call or text a friend.
“I think for us it’s always a lot more like: how can we use these things to really help people connect, rather than just being a kind of short-term fun experience, and you know, [that] it can actually be a huge strength in the long run – being the place where exactly the people you really know are,” Moss said.
Locket currently monetizes through subscription and says it has more than 100,000 subscribers. As a result, the 15-person company has been profitable since last year.
