Swsh’s new photo-sharing app lets Gen Zers filter out pink solo cups and alcoholic drinks  | TechCrunch

When Swsh launched final 12 months, the social app was initially designed as a ballot sport (much like the “Most Possible To” sport), the place customers can reply 5 each day questions with their pals.

Nonetheless, the corporate has utterly switched gears, becoming a member of a really crowded market — photograph album-sharing platforms. A majority of these apps have existed for just a little over a decade, with newer rivals together with Dispo, Lapse, Sunshine, and others. However Swsh believes it might stand out by providing Gen Z-focused options.

The primary characteristic that stands out is the power to filter out alcoholic drinks and solo cups, making it a useful gizmo for younger customers (particularly highschool and school college students) wanting to keep up a squeaky-clean picture on their social media accounts. One other characteristic is the power to cover sure images. For instance, if somebody seems visibly intoxicated at a celebration or has their eyes closed, they’ll request to cover the photograph.

Moreover, the app’s AI facial recognition device permits customers to seek for images of themselves in a sea of pictures. Customers need to decide into the operate, and hosts can even prohibit entry so customers can solely see images of themselves. 

The app just lately launched a tagging characteristic, permitting customers to assign names to faces for straightforward looking out. So, if a consumer can’t keep in mind the title of somebody who was at an occasion and needs to reconnect, they’ll merely look by way of the tagged names to search out them. Customers have particular person profiles and can even create collaborative teams with all their pals.

It’s a strategic resolution for Swsh to deal with focusing on Gen Z, the demographic that has grown up sharing their lives on-line. The app additionally goals to tailor itself to varsity fraternities and sororities, aiding presidents in managing quite a few occasions and the big quantity of images taken throughout these occasions.

The truth is, the brains behind Swsh are Gen Zers themselves – Alexandra Debow (CEO), Nathan Ahn (CTO), and Weilyn Chong (COO) – so that they perceive the target market nicely. 

“We might at all times be requested after events, ‘Hey, are you able to ship the images of me? And in addition, who was that cute man?’” Debow instructed TechCrunch. “After each social engagement, there’s at all times a transaction… ‘Ship me the images.’ That’s an alternate that occurs. It’s this social contract factor.”  

“I spotted there was this robust [need] to create the best-shared photograph album,” she added.  

Subsequent, Swsh plans to launch personalized albums so customers can add completely different themes for particular celebrations, holidays, and live shows. There may also be “Recaps,” a group of images on the prime of the web page for customers to reminisce on previous occasions. These options will roll out later this fall. 

Swsh relaunched its app in February and nonetheless has an extended approach to go earlier than assembly the identical stage of recognition as its rivals. In accordance with Sensor Tower estimates, the app solely has round 3,093 installs. Swsh says the variety of customers is rising 47% month to month. 

Regardless of the gradual development, a notable group of traders have backed the app, indicating a perception that Swsh has a promising future and may carry out nicely amongst youthful customers.

The latest spherical offered the corporate with $700,000 in new capital, which was led by BoxGroup with participation from Alexandra Burbey (Sound Ventures investor), Amy Moussavi (former Apple worker), David Rosenberg, Krish Jayaram (ex-director of product at Snap), and Sergei Sorokin (former VP of product at Discord), amongst others. 

The corporate has raised $2.4 million so far.