Exclusive: Glass wants to make an Instagram just for enthusiasts, but at a cost

Creating a new social community these days is seen as a poisoned chalice, particularly with juggernauts like Facebook, Twitter and now TikTok firmly entrenched within the public consciousness.

However, pictures continues to be seen as one of many final nice huge alternatives in social media, particularly with lovers. While Instagram provides a excellent place for this, it’s pivoted extra in direction of influencers and memes in latest occasions.

With the September 14 occasion confirmed just lately by Apple, there's a good probability that we'll be seeing new iPhones arrive quickly, which implies improved cameras to showcase on our chosen social networks.

This is the place Glass is available in, which is out there solely on Apple's App Store for the second. Thought up by co-founders Tom Watson and Stefan Borsje, the corporate has just lately eliminated its invite-only entry, so we spoke to them about how issues are going, alongside plans for the near-future, particularly with the iPhone 13 and Pixel 6 anticipated to be introduced quickly.

Detail of photo taken

(Image credit: Glass.photo)

A contact of Glass lovers

Having used the app since its debut, its elegant design and concentrate on pictures customers does set it other than different social networks, but it is too early to inform if Glass can actually eclipse its extra established rivals.

With a crowded social media community market, we needed to know what units Glass other than different web sites that target pictures.

“We have two [features], and I don’t think they’re what most people would suspect. Yes, we have higher quality photos with minimal compression. Color profile support? Yup. But right now, the things that make Glass great aren’t product-based,” Watson and Borsje clarify.

“They’re foundational pieces of our community. One: our commitment to our Community’s safety with blocking, reporting, and a code of conduct built-in to the product from day one. Our community has no place for hate or harassment.
Two: our lack of venture capital or outside investment. By self-funding Glass to this point, and to now be funded by members, we’re able to align our decisions with our community. High growth startups use tracking, ads, and algorithms to hook their users. They’re endless engagement machines, fighting for your attention. We’re able to forego all of that and we think that’s what makes Glass special.”

The new iPhone and Pixels on the horizon

With the inevitability of a new iPhone 13 mannequin being introduced at Apple's September 14 occasion, alongside Google’s Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, we questioned whether or not the latest launch of Glass performed a issue into this, particularly with many customers wanting to showcase the brand new cameras in these new fashions.

“We’re as thrilled about the new iPhones coming from Apple as the next photographer, but that didn’t play into our launch. While Glass is an iOS-app, it’s not exclusively an iPhone photography community," Watson explains. “We launched when we did because we couldn’t keep building in private. It was time to start building a community and working with them towards the features we collectively want.”

Privacy statement from Glass

(Image credit: Glass.photo)

A Glass ceiling of privacy

Privacy is a topic that many users want to be aware of when they sign up to a service - how its information is used and stored. We asked the Glass team how this factors into its design intentions.

“We think we have a significantly clearer Terms of Service than most apps. It makes it very clear that we don’t own a member’s photos,” Watson and Borsje explain. “When we launched, we made it clear that any user can download all of their data and account deletion. Because we don’t have investors or advertisers, we don’t need to keep your data around. When you delete your account, your data is gone for good.”

Profile screen in Glass app

(Image credit: Glass.photo)

Public profiles to come?

As Glass has only recently launched, there’s plenty of feedback that the company is receiving from its users, namely public profiles, so you can easily discover the type of device they commonly use, alongside some background into them. We wondered whether this was something that Glass was considering.

“Public profiles are definitely a planned feature for us, but we’re currently focused on continuing to improve our iOS app,” Watson and Borsje tell us. “Our first big feature update, adding Categories to Discovery, is coming in the next couple weeks and we couldn’t be more excited to get it into the hands of users.”

An iPad version incoming?

While it’s possible to view Instagram through a web browser on Apple’s tablet, there’s no dedicated app for it, baffling a few of its users. We asked if this was in the midst to appear for Glass instead, before Instagram took notice.

“We’ve been dreaming of an iPad version of Glass since we started work on it nearly two years ago, but it’s still a ways off,” Watson and Borsje explain. “Developing for iPad is a significant time and resources investment. Apple’s marketing does a great job of selling development for iPad, but it’s essentially a second app.

"Part of the trade-offs with not taking VC cash is that issues take us longer - we now have restricted assets and we transfer slower than different VC-backed rivals. We assume that's a long run aggressive benefit, but it’s a friction we really feel every single day. If you've gotten different folks’s cash, it’s straightforward to remedy issues shortly, but it’s arduous to remedy them nicely.”

A Glass paywall

Home for photographers in Glass app

(Image credit score: Glass.photograph)

While nearly all of social networks depend on adverts to hold the lights on, Glass is behind a month-to-month $4.99 / £4.49 or yearly £24.99 / $29.99 subscription, with a two-week free trial to begin off with. We needed to know if this was one other means of retaining the platform unique to pictures lovers whereas avoiding adverts to be proven.

“When we decided to forego venture capital to build Glass, we knew we’d have to fund it with membership fees,” Watson and Borsje clarify. “We think that a thriving indie business exists in a membership community and that photographers are happy to pay a minimal membership fee for a product instead of their data being the product.”

Accessible for everybody

Having pictures as a pastime or as a profession ought to be accessible to everybody, which is why we requested Glass if that is additionally seen as a issue for the app.

“We built Glass for photographers, amateur and professional alike. We hope Glass is a home for photographers to share their knowledge,” Watson and Borsje added. “Or a place for them to acquire more knowledge. We’ve already seen members levelling up their photography skills in the first two weeks of Glass launching, and we’ve seen iPhone photographers be inspired to buy their first DSLR. We’ve seen some of our favorite photographers share details on how they nailed a photo."

Fairground ride photo in Glass

(Image credit: Glass.photo)

Looking back on the launch

With Glass now foregoing invites as the only method that someone could sign up to the service, we asked if the reaction to the new social network has surprised them.

????As of this morning, you don’t need an invite code to join Glass! https://t.co/Ewzv8qy2LFSeptember 1, 2021

“We’ve been blown away by the response from our launch, and now in the last week we removed our invite-only system," Watson and Borsje explain. “It’s an important step to open up our community to anyone who would like to sign up and we’re excited to see where it takes us.”