Gen Z's Obsession with Vintage Photos and Polaroid Apps

Why is Gen Z so obsessed with 2000s pop culture? Or 1990s fashion? Or 1980s music? If you hop on TikTok, you might see a video of a Gen Zer dressed in a thrifted version of the outfits their parents wore as teens, ranting about how 2000s pop icons were treated in society while a song from the 80s that TikTok revitalized, like "Take On Me" by a-ha, plays in the background.

The truth is... it's because we are human too. Humans are nostalgic; we like to reflect on past times. Just as Gen Z romanticizes the 90s, millennials romanticized the 70s, and so on.

The difference between generations is simple. It's access. Growing up with access to search engines and social media made it really easy to not just hear about the past, but to experience it. Streaming platforms gave us access to millions of stories and videos and songs throughout history from an early age. Shopping platforms made it easy to buy and sell clothes that would historically be hard to get our hands on. Phone cameras gave us the ability to store and access thousands of photos over the years.

So if we have an interest in something from the past, we can explore it. We can access it. We can store it. We can live it. More than any other generation in history. Especially if it can help us escape our reality in a proliferating world of technology.

Among all the nostalgic fascination among gen Z, there's nothing bigger than vintage Polaroid photos.

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Look at a Gen Zer's Instagram profile today, you'll probably see a few grainy photos. Among those with vintage Polaroid photos on their page, it's not uncommon for many Gen Zers to have a separate Instagram page dedicated to the "film photos" they take.

Ebay searches for “digital camera” increased 10% from 2021 to 2022 and the instant camera market is projected to grow to $1.6B by 2029. In a world of advanced phone camera technology that can take high-quality photos from 300 feet away, Gen Z prefers timeless, dark pixelated shots. Something that we too can show our kids and also say "back then."

This phenomenon really started gaining traction in the late 2010s and has taken off since. Gen Z is buying old digital cameras or new-age "disposable cameras" like Fujifilm designed to be recycled after use.

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And as you might expect, there are now apps for this. Apps designed to take vintage film photos for your personal consumption, mixed with some social shareability, editing features, and more.

The first one to launch was Huji in 2018. Huji was basically a polaroid camera app that added a 90s filter over every photo. After 22 million downloads in its first year, it fell off. Perhaps it was too basic. It was like an old camera that you accidentally left in a unmarked box for many years.

The next one to gain traction was Dispo, a disposable camera app co-founded by social media star David Dobrik. It built on Huji in a few ways.

• You wouldn't be able to see any of your photos until 9AM the next, mimicking the development delay of classic Polaroid cameras. It was all about living in the moment

• It also used automated editing tools to "clean up" the pixelated parts of your photo to make it pop

• It made it social. You could post your pics or "rolls" to a feed or your "community", like a sorority.

Dispo grew on the wave of YouTube royalty to 10 million downloads in its first year, but its growth was fueled more by social media hype than actual interest. Amidst a Dobrik scandal, it has dwindled into irrelevancy over the past couple years.

What failed? Probably a mix of all three of its draws. Maybe people don't want to wait to see a photo and find out it turned out bad. Maybe the editing tools clean it up too much. Maybe an app designed for community rather than engagement fails to actually, well, engage.

In 2023, a new app called Lapse has come onto the scene. In September, it reached 210K daily downloads and jumped from #118 to #1 on the US App Store. It used a somewhat "dirty" growth hack to help skyrocket popularity; in order to sign up, users had to invite 5-10 friends to the app.

By the end of November, daily downloads dropped 70%.

The app itself is not much different from Dispo. You have to wait for your photos to develop. You can share your photos with your friends. You can organize them into albums. Based on customer feedback, Lapse is now positioning itself as more of a photo journal (i.e. Instagram photo dumps) than a social platform.

And these are a few of many apps on the app store at the intersection of retro photography and social sharing. POV allows you to snap photos from your own POV. Lense is another photo journal app. Locket is an app that shares live photos via widgets on your phone screen.

I don't think the market for a vintage camera social app is an issue. Humans are nostalgic by nature, some more creative than others, and have access to powerful AI tools that can capture draw dropping timeless photos of one another.

Somewhere between the photo journals and the delayed "film development" and AI and social communities and nostalgic fascination, I believe there's an app that can be produced for the masses one day.

Because a good photo of ourselves, one that is timeless yet expressive, can do wonders to our imagination and our psyche.

Hi I'm Neal! I created the Find Gen Z Series to give a Gen Z perspective on our rapidly changing world of social media, creator economy, AI, and more. If you liked what you read, subscribe below.

All opinions are of my own and not of my employer.