Locket, a private social networking app for friends, has scored a win with Gen Alpha users following the launch of its latest feature, Rollcall. The app lets friends share photos that appear in home screen widgets. It first hit the top of the App Store charts in early 2022 by taking advantage of Apple’s widget system to form the basis of its social network. Instead of updates sent via push notifications, the app’s widget updates to show friends’ newly posted photos. This drives 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 platform features into social networking tools, according to CEO Matt Moss. A former Apple Worldwide Developer Conference student scholarship winner, Moss understands that new formats can help attract users. Rollcall prompts users to share their favorite photos from the past week, and it leverages an iOS feature called Live Activities. This allows the app to utilize the iPhone Lock Screen to capture users’ attention. Introduced in iOS 18, Live Activities allow iOS apps to offer frequent information updates in glanceable locations like the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island.
Apple originally envisioned Live Activities as a way for apps with real-time information to update their users, such as with information about an Uber arriving or a pizza delivery. However, some apps have used the technology in unique ways, like adding a virtual pet that frolics in the Dynamic Island or displaying real-time lyrics for a song on the Lock Screen. For Locket, Live Activities becomes the modern-day version of the push notification. Every Sunday, the app takes over the Lock Screen with a Live Activity that pops up right on the homepage of the iPhone. It uses Apple technology to get in front of people and lets them share moments they might not have otherwise shared.
The use of the technology in this way has already proved successful for Locket, which has over 91 million lifetime installs across iOS and Android. In Rollcall’s first week, Locket saw over a million shares driven by the feature. Well over 25 percent of the app’s active users are now posting a Rollcall every week. The Live Activity pulls people in a lot more, creating a feeling of everyone doing this together as friends share. Roughly 80 percent of Rollcall’s initial active users were classified as Gen Alpha.
The founder noted differences between how Gen Alpha and Gen Z use Locket. For many newer users, Locket is their main way of connecting with friends, sending photos directly and sharing with ten or twenty of their best friends. This has become a primary communication method rather than just a companion piece.
With Rollcall gaining traction, the company is exploring how to use the feature as a launching pad for other experiences beyond photos. Adding video support is an obvious next step. The company is also thinking about how to incorporate things like music, favorite places visited, or prompts designed to help remember things that happened during the week. While Locket does not have plans to support AI-generated photos or videos, it is considering how AI could be used in other ways, such as making collages or pulling together photo memories.
The company believes there is something fundamental about communicating and connecting with real people in the world, and there will always be a demand for that. Locket is also thinking about how to transform users’ virtual connections with friends into more real-world touchpoints, even with simple reminders to call or text a friend. The goal is to genuinely help people connect, positioning the app as a place for the people you actually know.
Locket today monetizes via a subscription. As a result, the fifteen-person company has been profitable since last year.