My profile on foto - the new app for photography

Older photographers may still remember the days when Instagram was a simple app for sharing photos. That was a long time ago, but now videos, reels, algorithms and adverts have ensured that nothing is left of this idea and Instagram has become a TikTok clone. That's why I left Instagram, Facebook and Threads some time ago.

Glass¹ is an appealing alternative to Instagram, but it only makes sense to use it with a paid subscription². I signed up there again at the end of last year.

Some time ago, Michael Howard³ and his small team set out to create the foto app. I was there for a few months as a tester in the closed beta test.

Since February 21st, foto is now publicly accessible for iOS and Android. My profile can be found here - currently the installation of the app is required. Some ideas are similar to those of Glass, other things are solved or planned differently.

Glass is active now since a few years and is a mature network. A detailed comparison to foto doesn't make sense yet, but maybe in one ore two years.

The search for interesting content is a little more time-consuming here, as the photos are sorted chronologically. However, if you have found interesting content and then follow the photographers, your own homepage will gradually grow accordingly.

However, you can currently search for up to three keywords using the filter function.

The result then displays the corresponding photos. However, it is dependent on the respective creator having set the filters accordingly, as there are no algorithms or so-called ‘artificial intelligence’ at work here⁴.

This takes a little more time, but it's also more relaxed than feeding some obscure algorithm and having content suggested to you. However, the photo team is already planning some extension of the search functionality for this year. But they consciously wanted to go live at an early and not yet perfect stage in order to utilise the momentum for new applications caused by dissatisfaction with Instagram.

Another way to search for interesting content is to click on the indicator below one of your own photos. This tells you how many people appreciate the photo.

If you click on it, a view of the corresponding profiles opens with three photos, and you can search further for interesting photographers here or follow them directly.

The functionalities are not yet spectacular, but very nicely implemented. For me, it's definitely an interesting addition to other platforms, which is why I joined the Ambassador programme during the test.

There will be a desktop version this year and the first functions for subscribers, such as portfolio folders. More information can be found on the website of Foto.

If you use a Mac as your desktop, you can install the app there via the Mac OS App Store. As with other iOS applications, this works surprisingly well, although it was not designed and tested for this purpose.

So there is movement again in the range of networks for photographers. After leaving the toxic services of the Meta Group, I am delighted to be back on fresh and less noisy platforms.