I Tried Yope, Gen Z’s New Favorite Photo-Sharing App

I am always down to try a new social app (a face I have made so, so clear), especially when it involves sharing photos. And the trendy photo-sharing app of the the moment is Yope (available on iOS and Android). Launched in September 2024, it currently has 2.2 million monthly active users and 800,000 daily active users, many of whom are in the investor-coveted Gen Z demographic.

I am not a part of Gen Z, but as of today, I am one of the millions of people who used the app this month. It’s fun and all, but I’m not sure I’ll make it into that 800,000+ cohort of daily users. Here’s why, and what you need to know about Yope.

So, what’s Yope?

The easiest way to describe Yope is to say it’s kind of like a private Instagram crossed with a group chat. (I have never understood the appeal of having a private Instagram account, so I likewise don’t see the appeal of posting to an app designed to hide your content from the majority of users, but that’s me.) You can create and name groups, add friends to them, and then post your pictures to those groups. And that’s basically it. The pics create a stream that anyone in the small group can look at, and you can choose to have them appear on your lock screen. It that sense, it reminds me of Locket, an app I tested out three years ago that also sent your photos to your friends’ lock screens.

The problem for me was a lack of friends to put into a group. I synced my contacts right away, but out of 1,500 people on my phone, exactly zero of them were already on the app, signaling that all the hype around this being big for Gen Z might be true—though I definitely have some Gen-Z cousins saved in my phone, and none of them had it either.

To put the app through its paces, I had to send my referral link to a bunch of my friends and plead with them to download it, which they are sick of doing, given I am cajoling them into a new app every other week or so as it is. Only one, my lovely friend Danielle, agreed to it. This, at least, allowed me to create my first group.

I named it “pals” and Dani and I spent some time uploading pictures to the stream. It was cool for a few minutes, but with just two people, it got old quickly. It honestly wasn’t too different from how we used to use Snapchat, ages ago: Here’s a picture of what I’m looking at. There’s a picture of your face. OK, here’s one of my face.

You can respond to a photo without sending a photo, so the stream also functions as a basic chat. You can send real-time photos or pics from your camera roll, but that’s about it.

Is Yope worth downloading?

I’ve read a lot of discourse over the past few years about how the pendulum is swinging away from a cultural desire to post for the masses, and back to a compulsion to post for and interact with more tight-knit groups. Instead of tweeting or posting to a public Instagram, a lot of people do seem to enjoy being in small, interest-specific Discord or Telegram channels, in a way reminiscent of an earlier internet era that required one to seek out chatrooms to find like-minded people.

Personally, I am not one who desires a more curated online interactive experience, so I don’t really Vibe with Yope. Even if a lot of my friends were using it, I’d prefer to see everything in a jumble than sift through curated group feeds. But maybe that sounds good to you.

Yope positives:

• Account setup is easy

• The contact-syncing function is seamless (provided you have contacts who actually use the app)

• There aren’t any filters, and there’s minimal risk your photos will be seen by anyone you don’t want to see them, unless your friends screenshot and share them (taking a screenshot does not trigger a notification to the group)

• The lock screen function works well and updates immediately

• There lack of features means it doesn’t feel overwhelming; all you can do is post photos into your group stream

• It’s free

Yope negatives:

• It gets a little boring if you don’t have a lot of people to share photos with

• It’s yet another photo-sharing app to add to the list of ones you already have, each of which probably already includes the same group of friends you’d be sharing with on Yope

The bottom line: Nope

I personally won’t keep using Yope, at least not the way I used the similar BeReal for a long stretch in the summer of 2022. That doesn’t mean it won’t continue to gain traction with users who actually want an app that mixes Instagram with a group chat. It seems to have enough momentum to drum up investor capital, which could result in increased visibility and attract more users. Someone you know might even be using it by next month, even if you’re older than 27.