I'm so happy I supported Foto from the get go, but for a while I have gotten away from mobile apps. I'm a dedicated desktop user and look forward to that version's release. Congratulations on all the achievements over such a short span of time!
to me you're doing a great job. what i won't like to see is a feature that is there only because you can put it there, i would like to see features that are practical. example: i don't like to see my activity from last week only because you can create a statistic but i would like to see how many people clicked on a photo rather than how many likes the photo collected.
make it simple and practical. instagram already exist (love it or hate it) so why create another? people would like to see an anti-instagram instead of another instagram even if at the start they will treat it as an instagram. hope i'm making sense and thanx for listening
Hi! Just wondering - the reason Instagram works successfully (initially) as a photo based social media platform was that it didn’t market itself as an app just for “photographers” - hence there are a wide variety of people joining in, and these are the people who would typically purchase our prints or hire us. If you only market foto for photographers, who would buy our prints? Would another photographer buy another photographers’ work ? A photographer won’t hire another photographer for jobs. I think you have to think about marketing this not just FOR photographers. On my Instagram, I have more interior designers and actual art collectors who follow me and hence buy from me. The photographers who follow me is just there to keep an ‘eye’ out. I never had another photographer buy my work! I love the idea of foto is only a photo based app and no ads, but don’t miss the huge opportunity to include the rest of categories (normal people), as I think then this defeats the purpose of “promoting” your work on social media. Thanks for considering..
Hi Scarlett! Thanks for the comment. Our vision is to make Foto a place that everyone feels welcome to join and share photos online. For Private Beta and Public Beta, we've had mainly photographers join, but we expected photographers would be the early adopters of a new photo-sharing app.
When we go fully public, we will communicate more often about Foto being a place for everyone, not just photographers.
I realise it is potentially heresy to suggest this, but Scarlet's comment made me wonder how the sharing of non-photographic images would be viewed? Obviously, a painting would need to be photographed, but there is a great deal of difference between a photo that is, in itself, the creation, and a photo that is wholly intended to record and share a painting or sculpture.
Foto will be a photo-sharing app, but we aren’t going to be the image police. In 2024, the internet is a mix of images and most people want to share more than just lens-based photographs.
If we built Foto to be this ultra strict place, it will remain very small and we feel like photography touches everyone.
To reach a wider audience, we will allow other forms of images that are not defined by lens-based tools.
We will be Foto to where the features will emphasize photography first and foremost, but we also need to be open to how people share all sorta of pictures/images today on the internet.
We will build features for people that only want to talk to other photographers. You’ll eventually be able to create your own little community on Foto.
I’m currently relishing in the simplicity of this app. There are so many things I’m excited to see that would thoroughly improve the functionality (deleting & liking comments, mute & fav tags, portfolio option). And I like how there’s customisation of the settings in the future; like being able to turn DMs off. All in all, it’s nice to get a place ‘away’ from the hustle and bustle of having to make money. It’s just photos!
And while there are valuable ways people could share their work to make money (mentioned already: being able to share to other platforms + the shop feature), I’m glad to be here at the time when it was just about the photos. It’s a fresh feeling for me. As an old GenZ, IG came out when I was a teenager so using IG has always been about everything else (the photographer, the aesthetic, the marketplace, the larger company that owns it, how many likes it gets, etc.) but the picture(s).
Basically, great work and excited for the future while also relishing in the present.
Congratulations on the app! I’ve been using it daily and really enjoying the experience so far my user is @vitor, btw).
One feature I believe would greatly enhance the user experience is the ability to reorganize images after posting, something that’s often lacking in platforms like Instagram and other visual-based social media. As someone who sees Foto as an excellent portfolio tool, being able to rearrange images would allow users to better curate their profiles, reflecting a more cohesive or updated visual narrative. This could be offered as a pro feature, perhaps with the option to reorganize a limited number of times per month.
The ability to drag and drop images on a profile page would give users more creative control, not just to fix specific posts but to curate their "wall" as a whole. This functionality would be particularly appealing to professionals like photographers, designers, and artists, who rely on a visually compelling feed to showcase their work in the best possible way. Allowing for this flexibility could be a great differentiator and attract more creative users to the platform.
We believe this does need done before going public, but since Apple Beta is full we can’t grow the user base rapidly. We have other features prioritized over shareable links for now, but we will get it done before we go public. It’s on our short list.
Hi - I only became aware of Foto yesterday and I've been pleased with what I've seen.
A significant issue that many of us have with Instagram is it's intrusive censorship of images that it says are sexual. I'm not especially keen to see or to post porn type images, I don't have anything against it (as long as it's non-exploitative) but there is a near infinite supply of it already.
There is a complete absurdity in that it can be easier to get artistic nudes published on porn sites than on more art based ones. I see there are many images of nudity on Foto that would have been banned on Meta and the users subject to account restrictions. I've not yet seen any images that I might be considered to be closer to porn.
While I can see there is an option to report posts, I've not been able to find any posting guidelines or rules. Can you say what the principles are?
You may be aware of a site called Lips that, a few years ago, seemed to have the potential to be a censorship free alternative to Instagram - I tried it for a while but it seemed to rapidly become a signposting site for OnlyFans etc.
So, while I'm keen on minimal censorship, I wonder if/how stronger sexual images will be restricted?
Just to say: I like "Foto" so much, especially the possibility to write some sentences about the work published. One (minor) thought: Using the app on my tablet with a keyboard, most other apps could be forced to turn from "portrait" to landscape. Foto is refusing this. May be it could be made easily. Would help tablet users. Thank you... Joerg
Love the concept and idea, but i really missing an option to search for locations/citys and so on. So i could see who's active on foto around my hometown or my beloved places in the world and start following them - otherwise i would never find them at the moment.
looking forward to the new features, hope we are here to stay.
please dispense with the meta data and exif. it's always more about the actual picture if you don't know whether a picture was taken with a Leica or a Samsung cell phone.
I'm so happy I supported Foto from the get go, but for a while I have gotten away from mobile apps. I'm a dedicated desktop user and look forward to that version's release. Congratulations on all the achievements over such a short span of time!
Thanks Juliette
to me you're doing a great job. what i won't like to see is a feature that is there only because you can put it there, i would like to see features that are practical. example: i don't like to see my activity from last week only because you can create a statistic but i would like to see how many people clicked on a photo rather than how many likes the photo collected.
Yeah, I definitely think we'll expand post statistics and account stats in the future.
make it simple and practical. instagram already exist (love it or hate it) so why create another? people would like to see an anti-instagram instead of another instagram even if at the start they will treat it as an instagram. hope i'm making sense and thanx for listening
Hi! Just wondering - the reason Instagram works successfully (initially) as a photo based social media platform was that it didn’t market itself as an app just for “photographers” - hence there are a wide variety of people joining in, and these are the people who would typically purchase our prints or hire us. If you only market foto for photographers, who would buy our prints? Would another photographer buy another photographers’ work ? A photographer won’t hire another photographer for jobs. I think you have to think about marketing this not just FOR photographers. On my Instagram, I have more interior designers and actual art collectors who follow me and hence buy from me. The photographers who follow me is just there to keep an ‘eye’ out. I never had another photographer buy my work! I love the idea of foto is only a photo based app and no ads, but don’t miss the huge opportunity to include the rest of categories (normal people), as I think then this defeats the purpose of “promoting” your work on social media. Thanks for considering..
Hi Scarlett! Thanks for the comment. Our vision is to make Foto a place that everyone feels welcome to join and share photos online. For Private Beta and Public Beta, we've had mainly photographers join, but we expected photographers would be the early adopters of a new photo-sharing app.
When we go fully public, we will communicate more often about Foto being a place for everyone, not just photographers.
I realise it is potentially heresy to suggest this, but Scarlet's comment made me wonder how the sharing of non-photographic images would be viewed? Obviously, a painting would need to be photographed, but there is a great deal of difference between a photo that is, in itself, the creation, and a photo that is wholly intended to record and share a painting or sculpture.
Foto will be a photo-sharing app, but we aren’t going to be the image police. In 2024, the internet is a mix of images and most people want to share more than just lens-based photographs.
If we built Foto to be this ultra strict place, it will remain very small and we feel like photography touches everyone.
To reach a wider audience, we will allow other forms of images that are not defined by lens-based tools.
We will be Foto to where the features will emphasize photography first and foremost, but we also need to be open to how people share all sorta of pictures/images today on the internet.
We will build features for people that only want to talk to other photographers. You’ll eventually be able to create your own little community on Foto.
I’m currently relishing in the simplicity of this app. There are so many things I’m excited to see that would thoroughly improve the functionality (deleting & liking comments, mute & fav tags, portfolio option). And I like how there’s customisation of the settings in the future; like being able to turn DMs off. All in all, it’s nice to get a place ‘away’ from the hustle and bustle of having to make money. It’s just photos!
And while there are valuable ways people could share their work to make money (mentioned already: being able to share to other platforms + the shop feature), I’m glad to be here at the time when it was just about the photos. It’s a fresh feeling for me. As an old GenZ, IG came out when I was a teenager so using IG has always been about everything else (the photographer, the aesthetic, the marketplace, the larger company that owns it, how many likes it gets, etc.) but the picture(s).
Basically, great work and excited for the future while also relishing in the present.
Thank you so much for your support and interest in Foto!!! ❤️😊
After yesterday’s Meta AI announcements, I’m finally ready to give Foto a real shot.
Let’s get it!
Is there a way to see a summary of one's own "like" activity i.e. other users' photos that one has liked?
Keep up the great work: it's really appreciated and worthwhile! 👏
Not yet. We have ideas around this, but they are more on the 2025 timeframe
Thanks Michael. It would be a really useful feature to be able to return to, and remind oneself of, the photos one has previously admired.
Love all of these 👏 Happy to have paid to support this app, as I agree is the future of photo sharing online.
Thanks Brendan!
It seems a great roadmap! You are building a solid foundation for the future.
Thanks Rod!
Congratulations on the app! I’ve been using it daily and really enjoying the experience so far my user is @vitor, btw).
One feature I believe would greatly enhance the user experience is the ability to reorganize images after posting, something that’s often lacking in platforms like Instagram and other visual-based social media. As someone who sees Foto as an excellent portfolio tool, being able to rearrange images would allow users to better curate their profiles, reflecting a more cohesive or updated visual narrative. This could be offered as a pro feature, perhaps with the option to reorganize a limited number of times per month.
The ability to drag and drop images on a profile page would give users more creative control, not just to fix specific posts but to curate their "wall" as a whole. This functionality would be particularly appealing to professionals like photographers, designers, and artists, who rely on a visually compelling feed to showcase their work in the best possible way. Allowing for this flexibility could be a great differentiator and attract more creative users to the platform.
Once again, congratulations so far!
Thanks for the update!
Is there any chance of a fix to the bug that causes Foto to crash when you scroll far enough down a profile?
Yes it’s on the list to fix. We just have been working on other things
Do you think bumping up the timeline for shareable links would be a good idea as it could draw in more users significantly faster?
We believe this does need done before going public, but since Apple Beta is full we can’t grow the user base rapidly. We have other features prioritized over shareable links for now, but we will get it done before we go public. It’s on our short list.
Hi - I only became aware of Foto yesterday and I've been pleased with what I've seen.
A significant issue that many of us have with Instagram is it's intrusive censorship of images that it says are sexual. I'm not especially keen to see or to post porn type images, I don't have anything against it (as long as it's non-exploitative) but there is a near infinite supply of it already.
There is a complete absurdity in that it can be easier to get artistic nudes published on porn sites than on more art based ones. I see there are many images of nudity on Foto that would have been banned on Meta and the users subject to account restrictions. I've not yet seen any images that I might be considered to be closer to porn.
While I can see there is an option to report posts, I've not been able to find any posting guidelines or rules. Can you say what the principles are?
You may be aware of a site called Lips that, a few years ago, seemed to have the potential to be a censorship free alternative to Instagram - I tried it for a while but it seemed to rapidly become a signposting site for OnlyFans etc.
So, while I'm keen on minimal censorship, I wonder if/how stronger sexual images will be restricted?
Content rules are at http://fotoapp.co/content
Just to say: I like "Foto" so much, especially the possibility to write some sentences about the work published. One (minor) thought: Using the app on my tablet with a keyboard, most other apps could be forced to turn from "portrait" to landscape. Foto is refusing this. May be it could be made easily. Would help tablet users. Thank you... Joerg
Love the concept and idea, but i really missing an option to search for locations/citys and so on. So i could see who's active on foto around my hometown or my beloved places in the world and start following them - otherwise i would never find them at the moment.
That will come as we work on the metadata features
looking forward to the new features, hope we are here to stay.
please dispense with the meta data and exif. it's always more about the actual picture if you don't know whether a picture was taken with a Leica or a Samsung cell phone.
Looking forward to the added discovery features and hoping some of them will be based on something else than tags :)
Also hoping that functionality for re-sharing other's posts won't be too far off in the future