“Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”
—Mark Twain

Sometime last summer, I finally gave in. I just really wanted the Old Instagram back.

As some of you know, I was an early employee at Instagram. So reminiscing about the past (and dealing with a lot of disappointment) is nothing new for me. But by now, my yearning had grown too strong after all.

Old Instagram was perfect in many ways. Kevin and Mikey had created a gold standard for simple, fast and beautiful. But that Instagram is clearly gone. And it’s clearly not coming back. And so I decided, very reluctantly, to bring it back myself.

Fast forward to today, and I’m glad I started coding.

Say hello to Friends, an app for sharing photos with close friends.

Friends is not OG IG because we live & share differently than we did in 2010. But many things will feel familiar, while others will feel new and more intimate.

A few of us have been using Friends for a while now — and it’s been wonderful.

~~The doors are slowly opening for the next few people to join — so if you’d like to use it with your friends too, sign up for an early spot on the waitlist.~~

Update, August 2022: Friends is now open to everyone if you’d like to use too. Download it from the App Store and tell your friends about it:

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Say 👋 to Friends