You think you've stopped caring about the aesthetics of your home screen, and then along comes Locket: a new photo-sharing widget that'll change your app icons again. The app found an audience on TikTok after its creator uploaded a video of the app in action, and just a week later the app became the For You page's new green goddess salad.
Unlike other photo-sharing apps, Locket is not a platform for likes and effects and endless browsing. About the free app you can take and share live photos with up to five friends. These photos only appear in the Locket widget on your friend's home screen. Now, the place where you receive boring weather and calendar reminders will become the place where you take surprise photos of the people you really want to meet.
The app was developed by UC Santa Barbara alumnus and Apple WWDC scholarship recipient Matthew Moss. According to TechCrunch, Moss initially developed the app privately as a gift for his long-distance girlfriend, but decided to make it public after repeated requests from friends and family to try it. Other videos about using the app have also racked up millions of likes, comparing Locket to Snapchat. Since its launch on January 1, nearly 2 million people have added Locket to their home screens, according to app insights database Apptopia. According to the App Store, Locket currently ranks as the number one most downloaded social app.
How to download Locket
Head to the App Store to download the iOS-specific app, then follow the Getting Started steps to enable Locket's home screen access. To create an account you need to enter your name, phone number and verify with a code. After creating an account, you must give the app permission to access your address book. The app doesn't store any of your contact information and won't send messages to anyone without your approval, but it does require this step in order to function. With this access enabled, you can search for up to five individual friends.
Find the friend you want to share the Locket with, tap their name, and preview the automated text message inviting them to download the app. (If you haven't prompted your friends about the app, you may want to customize the text message with a "Hey, this isn't spam" comment so they don't ignore it.) Once your friends download the app program, you will be able to send photos to the widget and enjoy them together in real time.
How to send photos on a locket
Once you've joined the Locket team, just tap the widget to open the app and click the camera button to take a photo. This no-frills photo app only offers options to add flash or use the front or rear lens, and you don't have access to photos in your camera roll, so you'll need to take live photos. Once you send a photo to a friend, it will instantly appear in a widget on their home screen. As more photos are added throughout the day, they will come into focus and older photos will be moved to the History folder, which you can scroll through below the camera button.
What to do if the Locket app doesn't work
The app has some issues due to the influx of new users, so you may need to experience some glitches in the early stages. While you may find that the app crashes randomly, restarting usually helps, and if you still have trouble accessing the camera, you can try deleting the app from your phone and re-downloading it from the app store.
