I’ve always loved disposable cameras. Back in the pre-iPhone, pre-social media days, I used these throwaway cameras as a way to capture my life — trips to the water park with friends, school field trips, sleepovers. I can still remember exactly what it sounded like to turn the scroll wheel before taking a photo. There was something special about the whole experience — it was exciting to drop the camera off at the local drug store to get developed, not knowing how the pictures would turn out until they came back in their orange Kodak envelope. Of course, the photos were never perfect, but that was part of the charm of using a disposable camera — capturing not just the smiles and sunsets, but all the blurry, messy motion of having fun.

When I first heard about the new photo-sharing app Dispo, I knew I had to try it out. The app recreates the disposable camera experience for your phone, with a UI that looks exactly like the cameras I used to carry around when I was a teen — except now the scroll wheel allows you to zoom. You snap photos, then wait until 9 AM the next morning for them to “develop.” Inevitably, just like real-life disposable camera photos, some are blurry, dark, out-of-focus, with a thumb or a strand of hair in the way of the shot. But some turn out great, with the effortlessly cool, candid vibe of Instagram accounts like @gisposible, where model Gigi Hadid documents behind-the-scene moments from fashion shows and Met Gala after-parties in film photos.

From the Dispo App Store preview

The app launched in February with an invite-only beta test and immediately became one of the most buzzed-about apps on Twitter (at least partially due to the fact that Dispo had requested no screenshots be shared on social media, so people quickly became curious to see what everyone was talking about). For a while, it was the fourth-most downloaded app in the App Store and you couldn’t open Twitter without seeing someone ooh-ing over its delightful onboarding experience or ahh-ing over the cool photos they’d taken with the app.

All this hype has paid off — after originally raising $4 million in seed funding through Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six fund, Axios reported that Dispo “recently raised an additional $20 million in Series A funding led by Spark Capital at a valuation of about $200 million.”

So what’s the secret sauce?

Delayed gratification

Millions of people have seen the following video of Kylie Jenner’s daughter, Stormi, resisting the temptation to eat a bowl of M&Ms while her mom is out of the room — with the promise of being able to eat some when her mom comes back. The waiting is hard, but it builds anticipation — and Stormi’s shrieks of excitement when Kylie re-enters the room tell you everything you need to know about the power of delayed gratification.

It can be extremely frustrating to have to wait for something you really want — whether that’s a handful of M&Ms or a roll of party photos — but the waiting also makes the payoff that much sweeter. And in a world where we’re used to posting Instagram Stories of our cocktails before we’ve even taken a first sip, delayed gratification can be a huge product differentiator.

Not to mention a genius retention strategy. Once you’ve taken a few Dispo photos, there’s no way you’re not going to check in at 9 AM the next day to check out the pictures. And while you’re there, why not take a few more photos? It’s a loop that keeps you coming back for more… and more and more and more.

Nostalgia

Nostalgia is an extremely powerful emotion that activates the reward centers of the brain and makes us feel happy — it’s why we love to hear an old favorite song come on the radio, and it’s also a big reason why we love social media. It’s just as pleasurable — if not more pleasurable — to scroll through old photos we’ve posted and relive happy memories as it is to post something new.

For millennials like me who grew up with disposable cameras, Dispo taps into nostalgia in a couple of ways — it reminds us of fun moments at the beach, snapping pictures and getting sand on the camera lens, but it also reminds us of a time before the immediacy of social media, when we didn’t feel the need to document every second of our lives and present a certain image to the world. Back then, we took photos to preserve special moments for ourselves, not to share them with every acquaintance and stranger who follows us on Instagram.

Even though we may end up sharing all of the Dispo photos we take, the app is designed in a way that it feels more like a personal photo album than a photo-sharing app — which is a refreshing change in a world where we are constantly pushed to share more of ourselves.

An embrace of imperfection

Instagram is all glossy perfection, filters and Facetune and flattering angles. On Dispo, there are no filters. The lighting can be harsh. There’s only the tiniest of preview screens through which to determine if you’ve gotten the best angle for the photo. You can’t delete and retake in the moment.

But striving for perfection is stressful — and makes us hyper-focused on getting the exact right photo instead of living in and capturing the moment. Dispo gives us a break from the pressure.

As Elise Taylor wrote on Vogue.com about using Dispo on a night out with friends, “The entire night, I felt so light and airy. At first, I couldn’t pinpoint exactly why. But then I realized: It was the first time in a while that I hadn’t felt like I needed to get ‘perfect’ social-media shots of the evening — and that it was a personal failure if I didn’t.”

A photo taken on Dispo in Shoreditch, London

“Cool” factor

Like Tik Tok before it, Dispo has an undeniable “cool” factor. As much as it may speak to millennial nostalgia, it is definitely an app built with Gen Z in mind. The design is all block text, neon colors, and oil-slick rainbows. Popular public rolls have names like “Vibezzzz thooooo” and “Mukbang.”

It also feels less saturated than other social media apps. As much as it was hyped during beta testing, it’s still relatively unknown among the masses. There are no “influencers” on Dispo. No ads, no spon-con, no brands awkwardly trying to “connect” with their target demographic. In fact, regular people have already claimed user names like @tesla and @nikes in an attempt to cash out when the brands inevitably want to cash in. But for now, it’s a quiet little app, where people can be creative and weird and have fun, like Instagram before Facebook, or Facebook when you needed a college e-mail address to join. It’s the party before the party gets too crowded.

And that’s a pretty cool place to be.

Author’s note: Unfortunately, since I first wrote this article, horrendous allegations have been made about founder Dobrik, who has been accused of sexual assault and plying underage teens with alcohol. He has since left the company, and Spark Capital has severed ties with the app. What seemed like a huge success story — an exciting new app with a cool design and value proposition for nostalgic millennials — suddenly seems much more fragile and uncertain. All of the factors that make the app great are still true, but Dobrik’s leadership calls everything else into question. It remains to be seen what will come from the ongoing investigations, but hopefully the victims in the situation will be able to find justice.

A photo taken on Dispo in Shoreditch, LondonThe UX Collective donates US$1 for each article published on our platform. This story contributed to Bay Area Black Designers: a professional development community for Black people who are digital designers and researchers in the San Francisco Bay Area. By joining together in community, members share inspiration, connection, peer mentorship, professional development, resources, feedback, support, and resilience. Silence against systemic racism is not an option. Build the design community you believe in.