Locket is a photo and video sharing app that works through a home screen widget. It lets you send photos and videos directly to another person’s home screen without a feed, chat, or public audience.
It started with a simple problem. Developer Matt Moss missed his girlfriend when they were apart, so he built a way for her to send photos directly to his phone’s home screen. There was no app to open and no message to send.
He posted an explainer video and launched the app on the App Store in January 2022. Within months, it had millions of downloads.
Even as it grew, the app stayed true to its original idea by focusing on close, personal connections between one person or a small group instead of building an audience like most social media apps.
How It Works
The idea builds on something people already know, a calendar widget that shows today’s date without opening the app. Locket uses the same approach for photos and short videos instead of dates.
Users can add up to 20 friends. When one of them takes a photo in the app, it appears directly on the recipient’s home screen widget. There is no chat thread to check, although the app is not completely silent either.
Senders can attach a short line of text to a photo, and recipients can reply, but the reply stays tied to that one photo rather than opening a conversation.
The widget itself has grown beyond plain photos too. It now has versions that can surface a friend’s current weather, the song they’re playing, or a short video clip instead of a still image.
A Weekly Layer Called Rollcall
Locket recently introduced another way for users to share beyond its daily widget. Called Rollcall, the feature lets users post a selection of their favorite photos from the past week every Sunday with a wider group of friends, instead of only the person they’re paired with on the widget.
Friends can then see each other’s weekly highlights, but the feature avoids becoming a traditional social feed. Every Rollcall post disappears after 7 days, keeping the experience focused on the moment rather than building a permanent timeline.
The Limits Are the Feature, Instead of a Workaround
Locket has no public feed, no map showing where people are, and a friend limit of just 20. It doesn’t feel like an app waiting for more features.
Instead, it feels intentionally designed to keep your circle small enough that no one feels pressured to perform. That’s what sets it apart from feed-driven social apps. The space is smaller, more personal, and there’s little reason to put on a show.
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What Locket Gold Buys You
A subscription unlocks 7 features at once:
- Short video clips
- The ability to see who’s opened a photo
- Camera roll uploads instead of fresh photos only
- Unlimited friends instead of a capped list
- Custom widget frames
- Custom app icon
- Longer captions
Subscribers also get early access to upcoming features and a monthly drop of something new. Pricing lands at $4.99 a month or $45 a year, which works out closer to $3.75 a month if paid upfront.
The unlimited friends feature is the one that stands out because it quietly contradicts the app’s core idea. Locket is built around keeping your circle small and personal, yet one of its main paid features lets you remove that limit altogether.
The Numbers
On Play Store, Locket has a rating of 4.5 based on more than 300,000 reviews and has surpassed 10 million downloads. On App Store, it has a rating of 4.8 from over 400,000 ratings and is ranked 15th in the Social Networking category.
Long-time users say they have sent hundreds of Lockets to the same friend and still find the app engaging. However, many want features like filters, audio for videos, and slightly longer video clips.
The app also keeps an active following outside the stores, with more than 180,000 followers on Instagram and a presence on Facebook as well.
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The Target Audience for Locket
Locket isn’t designed for people chasing likes or followers. It’s built for sharing the small, everyday moments that help you stay connected with the people who matter most.
That makes it a great fit for couples apart during the day, close friends who are tired of social media feeds, or anyone who would rather see a blurry photo of a coffee than another carefully edited post.
Locket is worth the 5 minutes it takes to set up if your group chats are active but you still feel like you’re not really keeping up with the people closest to you.
