Photo-sharing app Frontback just received an update in the App Store. The company revamped user profiles to make them a little more informative. Now, you can see an avatar, the nickname and full name, a user description and a location. You can also easily access followers and following lists. Finally, you can block someone if you don’t want this particular person to see your Frontbacks.
As a reminder, Frontback started as a photo-taking app to capture fleeting moments. A Frontback post is a digital collage of what’s in front of you, and your face as it happens.
Frontback still doesn’t allow comments and doesn’t show your number of followers. It’s easy to understand why comments were left out. It’s a selfie-heavy app — there is a risk of having to deal with bullying comments. As for follower numbers, not knowing whether you have more followers than your friends seems deliberate as well. Frontback defines itself as a global community of photo enthusiasts, not a competition.
Launched last summer, the app received hundreds of thousands of downloads in just a few weeks. But its growth is only starting now.
The company worked hard to comply with Apple’s standards when it comes to design. And it has paid off as the app has been regularly featured on the App Store homepage for the past two months. You can see the featuring effect on App Annie:
App Store rankings
Frontback is also getting popular in Japan and China. Super users are emerging — the Japanese community even self-organized a Frontback meetup in Tokyo. The app receives an average rating of 4.5 stars in both China and Japan.
Back in February, co-founder and CEO Frédéric della Faille told me that every time someone launches the app, he or she gives 12.5 likes on average. A photo community is slowly but surely adopting this new medium.
Last week, I received more likes than usual with one of my Frontbacks, making me wonder where these new users were coming from. I asked della Faille whether Frontback pays for downloads. His answer was “never.”
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