Share moments, not feeds. Intimate photo-sharing app for close friends with ephemeral albums and reactions.
- Private friend circles
- Ephemeral albums
- Photo reactions
- Memory capsules
- No follower counts
- 9,500+Active
- 4.7★Average rating
- 20k+Downloads
About the project
PicMii is anti-Instagram — a private photo sharing app for close circles of 8–12 friends. No followers, no likes count, no algorithmic feed. Just real photos shared with the people who matter, disappearing after 30 days.
What’s inside
- Private friend circles
- Ephemeral albums
- Photo reactions
- Memory capsules
- No follower counts
What the problem was, what we did about it, and what changed.
Challenge
Gen-Z users were exhausted by performative social media. They wanted a space to share real, unfiltered photos with close friends without the pressure of public metrics.
Approach
Designed a 'circles' model limited to 12 members, built ephemeral storage on Cloudflare R2 with automatic 30-day expiry, and created a reaction system using custom animations instead of like counts.
Outcome
20k downloads, 47% D7 retention (3× industry average for social apps). Users share 4× more photos than on Instagram.
47%
D7 retention
3.2
Photos/user/day
8k+
Circles created
Circle Feed
Shared photo stream with your closest friends — no algorithm.
Reactions
Expressive emoji reactions and voice notes on each photo.
Memory Capsule
Lock a collection of photos to be reopened on a future date.
“They built exactly what we envisioned — a social app that actually feels social. The ephemeral albums are genius.”
A few other products we have taken from brief to launch.
Ready to Ship?
Whether it’s a first version or a rescue of one that stalled, we’re ready when you are. Let’s talk ideas.
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