Roll
The disposable camera for your phone
219 followers
The disposable camera for your phone
219 followers
Roll is a mobile camera app that works like a disposable: you get 12 shots per roll, and when you’re done you choose when your photos “develop" from a couple of weeks up to a year—so opening them feels like a surprise again.
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@claude_piche Honestly the best part is that it’s not actually “one-time use”, and I don’t need to plan ahead and buy a new one before a trip.
And to your question- yes, the limited shots actually help me stay more present and less in “the Instagram story mode”
@maya_elor and... the prices of the disposable camera these days!!!
Love this “less in Instagram story mode” is exactly the behavior I’m hoping to encourage.
Curious, did it change what you choose to capture too, or mostly just how often you shoot?
@claude_piche Hi Claude. Congratulations on the launch. As someone who's guilty of endless scrolling through previews, have you noticed users sharing stories of better, more authentic memories because of it?
@dayal_punjabi
Too early to say honestly.
Dtarting to see hints of it in how people describe the experience, more about the moment than the output, but it’s still early days.
@curiouskitty Such a great question! Most common ones are social moments like dinners, weekends with friends, and trips, where a “roll” naturally maps to a shared experience and gets closed at the end. I've been recently planning how we'll introduce the concept of collaborative rolls, where different users could contribute to a singular roll, so you get the POV of everyone that participated in a event!
Family time is another big one, especially with parents who want to stay present but still capture memories.
We’ve also seen some unexpected high-retention use cases, group events like bachelor parties or team offsites where one collective roll captures the vibe without over-documenting.
We're still early in the journey but, so far, mapping to a lot of the assumptions we've had up front!
Are you looking at anything around sharing "cameras" with contacts? If you think about weddings, where there used to be a trend of leaving a disposable camera on each table for people to use and get candid shots of the event, the bride and groom got the surprise doubly by not knowing who took the pictures or what they took them of. Having something similar, where the coordinating users could send invites to contacts, contacts would interact on their phones, and all the images taken would return to the coordinator for review/curation for a shared album the contacts have access to. I could see something like that really amping up the fun of the event use of the app and conceivably allow more gamification (ratings, reviews, comments in album) and possibly making the app more viral.
@chrisbertrand7
That’s a really great callout. Feels very on brand with what Roll is trying to do.
The disposable camera at weddings worked because it was shared, a bit messy, and full of surprises. Translating that to phones, where someone can spin up a “camera” and invite others in, feels like a natural extension.
I like the idea of everything flowing back to one person for curation. You keep the magic of not knowing what’s being captured, but still end up with something cohesive people can revisit later.
I’ve been thinking more about this direction. Making Roll something that lives around moments with other people, not just a solo thing. This definitely pushes it there.
@chrisbertrand7 Wow I like the idea!
Hello, Claude. I really like the idea of this app - I remember the old days, too! I was wondering if you have to take all 12 photos in one session, or if (for example) you could take six photos today and six tomorrow? Good luck with your launch. Thank you!
@cronberry Thanks Jonathan, really appreciate that 🙏
You don’t have to take all 12 in one go, you can spread them out however you like. So yeah, 6 today and 6 tomorrow totally works.
The idea is more about capturing moments as they happen, not forcing it into a single session 🙂
Appreciate the support!!
this hits different than all the AI photo apps flooding the market. reminds me of waiting to get film back from CVS and forgetting what you even shot. the anticipation was half the experience. curious if you're tracking any wellbeing metrics around reduced photo anxiety or phone usage patterns?
@piotreksedzik Love that perspective! the anticipation really was half the magic.
Right now I’m not tracking any wellbeing metrics (trying to keep things super simple), but it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot.
The goal with Roll is definitely to reduce that “check / retake / overthink” loop and make it feel lighter, more intentional.
Adore this concept, and design is outstanding ::chef's_kiss::
With so many products designed to make photos look like film, I love that Roll makes photography feel like film. Aspect ratio is a cool feature: I can make my images look like 120 film! Love the tips. How do I turn on gridlines (tip 10)?
I'm also curious (like others, below) about what behavior patterns you see as DAUs grow: are users tending to shoot all 12 images at once, or being more intentional and thrifty with their "Rolls".
Good luck! Will be following enthusiastically!
@jacques_bromberg
Love this, appreciate it 🙏
“Feel like film” vs just “look like film” is exactly the goal.
Re: gridlines, not live yet actually (tip is a bit ahead of the product 😅), but it’s coming. Good nudge to prioritize it.
On behavior patterns: early signal is interesting.
There’s definitely a cohort that burns the 12 quickly (novelty / muscle memory from digital), but the more engaged users tend to slow down a lot and stretch a roll over time.
Love this concept for so many reasons. Number 1 is my 2 year old daughter. Every time we take a photo of her, she has to see it immediately. This is a learned behavior from watching her mom and dad. Always taking several photos to get the perfect one instead of living in the moment, and whatever photo we snapped we got! Just one question, why did you land on 12 photos?
@derek_curtis1
Love that example (I have a 7years old).
Kids are actually the perfect mirror for this. They just copy what we do. That instinct to check right away isn’t natural, we taught it.
The 12 photos came from that same idea. It needed to feel limited enough that you think before tapping, but not so restrictive that it becomes frustrating. 12 felt like a sweet spot.