August short №2: Glass

A few days ago I was made aware of Glass, a new photo sharing app and community with a design and intent that positively reminds me of early-days Instagram.

At the time of writing, the app is still iOS-only, and to sign up you either need to receive an invite from someone who’s already in, or sign up within the app and get on the waiting list. When your turn comes, you receive an invite from Glass itself.

Notable characteristics:

No ‘likes’. You like someone’s photo? Write them a comment.

No gimmicky photo filters.

No statistics or other analytics.

No ads or algorithms. Glass is supported by subscriptions: $4.99/month or $49.99/year ($29.99 at launch). There is a 14-day free trial period. Everything is handled via the App Store.

Because there are no algorithms, you can enjoy a simple, chronological feed.

No data tracking.

The ability to download your data anytime you want.

Design-wise, one could say that the app is quite minimalistic, almost bare-bones in places. You have a tab for your feed; you have a sort of ‘discovery’ tab where you can look at other photographers’ profiles and photos, and follow them if you like; you have a tab with your profile; and finally a notification tab. On the bottom right there’s a separate (+) button to upload your photo. That’s it. Notifications, too, are pleasantly restrained: you can get a notification when someone follows you and when someone leaves a comment to your photos. There is no following/followers count. You can see a list of people you follow and people who follow you by tapping on Following and Followers on your profile page. All this absence of numbers, metrics, and quantification is truly refreshing in this day and age.

I love everything about Glass, and I’ve signed up for a yearly subscription right away, even if I’m famously averse to app subscriptions. But Glass looks and feels perfectly tailored to my photo sharing needs and expectations. For me it’s even better than pre-Facebook Instagram in the sense that it pushes me to select and share what I think are good photos (same as it happens with Flickr), rather than making me obsess with getting ‘the Instagram shot’ at all costs every day or multiple times in a day. It doesn’t cheapen photography like Instagram has done for years.

That’s why I hope Glass’s founders/developers will resist feature creep. Resist user objections like: I don’t think Glass is offering that much for the subscription price they’re asking. There are a lot of people who will gladly pay for having a cleaner, simpler, focused experience.

And that’s pretty much it for now, I think. If you want to find me there, my handle is @morrick, just like on Twitter.