Lapse App Review: Is it Safe for Kids?

Welcome to our latest app review! New social media and photo/video apps pop up ALL the time. From BeReal to Saturn to Threads – there is always something new. This fall’s latest hit is Lapse. It’s a photo/video app that strives to turn your smartphone camera into an old-school, point-and-shoot film camera. Users take pictures, share photo albums, and get featured. Lapse has good default safety features, but there are still a few risks.

Rated 12+ on the Apple App Store (Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References, Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor, Infrequent/Mild Contests)

Lapse is not available on the Google Play Store.

Setting up Lapse:

To use the app, Lapse asks you to turn on notifications (can be avoided), verify your phone number, create a username, invite contacts (must be done, we don’t love this), add friends (can be avoided), and even set up a widget on your lock screen before using the app (must be done- an iPhone widget allows new snaps to show up right on the home screen).

Then it guides you through the process of creating your account, “verifying” you are older than 13 (just a toggle, not strong verification), selecting a profile picture and adding 5 emojis around it, and lastly selecting your birthday to display your Astrology/Star sign on your account. This step can be skipped, which we recommend (inserting Astrology here isn’t necessary).

Next, Lapse shows you how to take pictures, “develop” photos (we explain this below), and create a journal (photo album). It’s an intensive process for getting started, but once you complete all these steps, you can begin using the app freely.

How does Lapse work?

Lapse contains your own personal pictures and journals (your account), a friends tab, friends searching feature, and a featured tab. We break it down and explain each aspect of Lapse below!

Pictures and Journals:

Remember how we said this app turns your phone into a film camera? Well, one of the ways they deliver this is through how you take pictures. You must wait a full 24 hours for your photos to “develop” before you can see or share them (like the good old days!). Once your photos are ready, you will get a notification and can simply swipe to share, or add to a specific album.

You can add your images to a photo album that can be played on your journal as a fast-paced slideshow. Your journals (account page) can only be viewed by friends by default (yes!) or can be changed so only you can see them. A journal can also be shown in the background of your account, which is the only way to “publicly” share them without adding friends or getting featured.

Friends Tab:

The friends tab is simply a feed of your friends posting their journals. Friends are the only ones that can comment on your posts and pictures. There is also a search feature for finding friends, which didn’t come up with any harmful content as far as we could see. Currently, there doesn’t seem to be a way to make your account undiscoverable on the search feature, but you can simply deny any incoming friend requests from strangers. You can also report and block users if needed.

Messaging and Instants:

Thankfully, you cannot message or DM users without being friends first, which is great! Once friends, users can talk, send pictures to each other, and work on collaborative journals. You can have multiple people adding to a shared journal. Users can also send “instants” to their friends, which are images that can only be viewed once and are deleted from your device after sharing – giving the illusion that these will never be seen again.

This reminds us of the dangers of Snapchat, and how the lure of disappearing photos when combined with young brains can create temptation for risky behavior. Obviously, just like with Snapchat, users can screenshot, screen-record, or even use another device to capture any sensitive images before it’s “gone.”

Featured Tab:

The featured tab highlights memories (previous pictures) that users can submit to the Lapse team, who will select images to feature publicly in the “Featured” tab. This allows people to react to the featured images with an emoji, but there is no commenting on Featured images. This appears to be the only way for non-friends to see your pictures.

This is like a “feed” that you might experience on Instagram or Facebook, but it seems that Lapse is trying to make it a bit safer by reviewing content before it hits Featured.

You can tap on the profiles that are featured and visit their account page. Without being friends, you can see their bio, any school they may have linked, their Astrology/Star sign, their profile picture along with their 5 emojis, and a journal slideshow that plays behind their profile picture.

Accounts that are featured shouldn’t have any explicit content in their background slideshow, as they have been chosen by the Lapse team.

What else should Parents know about Lapse?

The app has rather decent privacy built in by default. Once you become friends, that’s where more of the risk exists. But if you only add trusted friends and never submit memories to the Lapse Team to get featured, then Lapse is a safer experience.

By casually using the app, the PYE team did not experience explicit content.

We wouldn’t be surprised to see changes that make Lapse photos eventually more public and therefore, more risky. As we have seen with BeReal, changes to a rather restrictive photo/video app usually mean adding more social media-like aspects, such as a general “discover” page or more ways for users to connect with each other.

Practice the 7-day rule! If your child wants this app, download it on your phone first, and make your own test account. Use it for a week and decide if you’d be okay with your child using it.

Lapse App Review Bottom Line:

Here are five ways for you to create a safer experience with the Lapse App:

1. Use the app for seven straight days and experience it for yourself. Decide if your child is ready.
2. For what it’s worth, we still think all social media, including Lapse, should stay clear of junior high. Lapse is still social media, with the ability to send photos, see photos from friends, comment, send direct messages, and even send “instant” (disappearing) photos. Some elements of both Snapchat and Instagram. Age 16 if possible.
3. If you allow it, be sure to only add trusted friends. Curiously ask them about who they’ve added from time to time. We’re a fan of “capping” a maximum number of “friends” on any social media platform. No child should have to handle digital input from hundreds of people. 
4. Ensure your child knows their device belongs to you, and that you can check their phone anytime (our “parent-led” ownership principle).
5. Ask your child to keep an eye on the Lapse Featured page. Ensure the images shown are in line with your family’s values. And curiously ask them about this from time to time. Your child can’t control what hits “Featured,” but if you allow the app, it’s a spot to at least stir some conversation.

Lapse is still social media and therefore, our Bottom Line treats it that way. Lower risk than Snapchat, Instagram, or TikTok, but still social media with at least some of social media’s pressures.

What if I have more questions? How can I stay up to date?

Two actions you can take!

1. Subscribe to our tech trends newsletter, the PYE Download. About every 3 weeks, we’ll share what’s new, what the PYE team is up to, and a message from Chris.
2. Ask your questions in our private parent community called The Table! It’s not another Facebook group. No ads, no algorithms, no asterisks. Just honest, critical conversations and deep learning! For parents who want to “go slow” together. Become a member today!