Delaying Gratification — Exploring the Buzzy, Invite-Only Dispo App Beta
Growing up, my mom was always taking photos. She even converted a small walk-in closet to a darkroom. She shot on a Hasselblad, an iconic camera where the photographer has to counterintuitively look down towards her waist to shoot.
While I was (reluctantly) the subject of many of my mom’s photos, the part I loved was venturing to the darkroom after and developing the pictures together.
If my mom wasn’t shooting on her Hasselblad, she was shooting on a portable Olympus, a small brick that you could hold by a string. She would buy rolls of film, shoot and we’d have to drop them off at a pharmacy and pick them up the next day.
Whether it was her darkroom or the pharmacy, there was always an immense sense of anticipation waiting to view the photos and relive cherished memories.
Enter Dispo
Dispo is a new, photo-sharing app founded by famous YouTuber David Dobrik. The app has a novel concept providing the same experience as an IRL digital disposable camera. The user takes a photo, “waits” for it to develop, and picks up the raw & unfiltered photos the next day at 9 AM.
So, with instant and professional-grade cameras in our pockets, why would anyone want to wait for photos?
I love the tagline for Dispo — “Live in the Moment”
I read a few interviews about how this idea came to be. David said he saw friends bringing disposable cameras to parties. Instead of people caring about which filter to use, what caption to write, “there was a tendency for everyone to drink and hang out” and then people would share their photos after they were developed.
The app is built with the core belief that “Delayed gratification” is more emotional than “Instant gratification”.
Say Cheese
Taking a Picture: As soon as you log in, you’ll see a grainy, skeuomorphic “disposable camera”. If you look close enough, you’ll see a tiny viewfinder, an homage to having to close one eye to take a picture. You almost can’t see what you’re taking a photo of. There’s a zoom-in & out feature, flash, and a button to take a selfie. That’s it.
Getting Photos Developed: After you take photos, you’ll have to wait for them to be developed. When your photos are ready, you can drop them into a roll, save them as a favorite, export them or delete them.
Rolls: You save your photos and name them under rolls. Think of this like… going on a vacation, printing out all the photos, and putting them into one photo album.
Shared Rolls: You can build albums or “join a roll” with friends. And, you can join a roll with others in the community.
The Clubhouse of Photos?
There are UX designs and cultural zeitgeists propelling both forward and it’s logical to make comparisons between the two right now.
Like Clubhouse, Dispo is an iPhone app where a user has to be invited, making it feel exclusive.
Both apps thrive in the community. With Clubhouse, users can participate in rooms, and with Dispo, users can join shared rolls, even with strangers!
In Clubhouse, there are no posts or captions, just audio. With Dispo, there are no captions, just a camera.
Beyond UI, Clubhouse and Dispo are both capitalizing on the premise of being in the moment.
But a dichotomy emerges when you ask “Why?” does being in the moment matter.
With Clubhouse, if you’re not online when a conversation happens, you miss it. Clubhouse thrives on the concept of FOMO — fear of missing out. There no denying it; magic happens in Rooms. But with Clubhouse, we’re on our phones more.
Dispo’s goal is to fundamentally remove the current reliance on phones. Their Notion page says, “A digital disposable camera experience allows us to reclaim our lives from our phones. Waiting for developed photos is like Christmas morning. And it allows us to use cameras to live in the moment and tell stories again.” This is the single thing I love most about Dispo.
Striving for…
Authenticity, which is a dominating trend of 2021. Dispo’s premise has the potential to foster more of it which makes it sticky. But, the app still has many of the same elements that keep users hooked, like notifications when you’re followed, “streaks” and follower counts.
It also doesn’t let me connect my existing address book. Even with a community focus, it can still feel like an empty room without my friends and family there.
If Dispo really wanted us to remove reliance on our phones, I would love to see this software go into hardware. Dispo should make a real disposable camera that could connect to the app.
Hasselblad 2.0
The only person I’ve shared it with so far is my mom. She ravished in the premise and its sleek and simple design. Not sure if it will replace her darkroom but Dispo is a novel, social app with a philosophy I’m here for.
