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, which lets friends share photos that then appear in home screen widgets, first hit the top of the App Store’s 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 would update to show your friends’ newly posted photos. This, in turn, would drive engagement back in 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, CEO Matt Moss explains. A former Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) student scholarship winner, Moss understands that new formats can help attract users and draw people in.

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 (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 instance, with information about their Uber arriving or 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 the real-time lyrics for the song you’re listening to right on your Lock Screen.

For Locket, however, Live Activities becomes the modern-day version of the push notification.

“Every Sunday, we’ll take over your Lock Screen and you’ll get this nice Live Activity that pops up right on the homepage of the iPhone,” said Moss. “It’s similar to the widget [as it’s] using Apple technology to get in front of people and then let 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.

The use of the technology in this way has already proved successful for Locket, which has north of 91 million lifetime installs across iOS and Android, per Appfigures estimates. In Rollcall’s first week, Locket saw over a million shares driven by the feature, the company said.

In addition, Moss said that well over 25% of the app’s active users are now posting a Rollcall every week.

“The Live Activity pulls people in a lot more,” Moss said. “And it’s fun, because as your friends are sharing, they’ll feel like we’re all doing this together.”

Roughly 80% of Rollcall’s initial active users were classified as Gen Alpha.

The founder noted there are some differences between how Gen Alpha and Gen Z use Locket.

“I think the big difference is … [being] the companion piece 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’s been a big difference for us,” he added.

Image Credits:Locket

With Rollcall gaining traction out of the gate, the company is now exploring how to use the feature as a launching pad for other experiences beyond photos. For instance, 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 visited, or prompts designed to help you remember things that happened during the week.

While Locket doesn’t have plans to support AI-generated photos or videos, like Sora or Meta AI, the company is considering how AI could be used in other ways — like making collages or pulling together photo memories.

“Even though those things may use up a lot of attention,” Moss said, referring to AI apps, “there’s something so fundamental and basic about communicating and connecting with real people in the world. There will always be a role for that, and there will always be a demand that people have.”

The company is also thinking about how Locket can transform users’ virtual connections with friends into more real-world touchpoints — even if it’s something as simple as reminding users to call or text a friend.

“I think for us, it’s always much more like: how can we use those things to actually, genuinely help people connect, versus it just being a kind of short-term fun experience, and you know, [that] might actually be a huge strength in the long run — being that place where it is just the people you actually know,” Moss said.

Locket today monetizes via a subscription and says it has more than 100,000 subscribers. As a result, the 15-person company has been profitable since last year.