Blog · Dev update 04
irl dev update 04: everything happens irl
We planned 04 as Honest Zoom. Then irl.ing grew past a video app, so this one is about what we are now: everything happens irl, on the no-algorithm social network. Honest Zoom moves to 05.
Our guidestones
Everything happens irl. The no-algorithm social network. Every feature and every line we write has to follow from those two lines.
- The no-algorithm social network. Nothing decides what you see. Your feed is your friends and the categories you follow, newest first, and then it ends: “You’re caught up.”
- Everything happens irl. Every post says how it was made. A loop from the irl.ing camera is sealed on your phone. One from your phone’s camera app says “Camera app”. Every look and effect is named on the loop, wherever it plays.
More ways to post
- Text loops. Type up to 140 characters and irl.ing animates them in its own pixel style: Type, Drop, Build, Beat or Ticker, in Light, Dark or Rainbow, Square or Full. A text loop is about 30 to 80 KB. It says “Text” wherever it plays, its words are its description for screen readers, and our safety review reads them too. Any script works: Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, emoji.
- From your phone. A video from your camera roll, trimmed to 11.11 seconds in the same editor as the camera app, and labelled “Uploaded” with the date its file gives. It’s built, it’s for adults only, and it switches on once matching against known child-abuse images is running.
A camera that gets out of the way
- Regular mode is the default every time you open the camera. GPS mode, Pixel and Anon are one tap away.
- One settings panel for every camera in the app, with a timer, grid, torch, zoom, exposure and mirror where your phone supports them.
- Effects on and off while you record. Each one is labelled on the loop from the frame it starts.
- Record with your phone’s camera app. Pick any 11.11 seconds in the editor, slide the frame, choose the sound. The loop says “Camera app”.
- The whole camera fits on one screen. The tools sit over the picture in a corner, Regular, GPS, Pixel and Anon run along the bottom, and under the picture there’s just Flip, Record and Done. In full screen the picture stays clear: nothing sits across the middle of it.
- Loops start on the picture. The smart-pixel intro is gone.
Categories
- Up to three on a loop. Type and the ones that exist come up. Tap to add one, or start a new one.
- Nothing is ranked. A category shows its loops newest first, like everything else.
Everyone, everywhere
- Every language at the top. English, 中文, 日本語, Español, العربية, Français and Lingála now sit at the top of every public page, all of them in view.
- Sign in with an email code, as promised in 03, for people who don’t want to use a fingerprint or face. The code comes in a plain, designed email with no links to tap.
- A film on the home page, 31 seconds on what a ranked feed does to people, and the answer. Music by DANN, “all i need”.
- Public loops as a sliding puzzle. On the home page, one square is empty and a tile slides into it every so often. It holds still when you point at it, and with reduced motion.
- irl.ing on Instagram at @_irl.ing_, and a refreshed press kit.
- Every release is tested first. Our release tooling won’t publish unless the whole test suite passes, and no test can send a real email.
What we’re building next
- Photos, from the irl.ing camera (sealed) or from your phone (labelled “Uploaded”).
- Matching against known child-abuse images on every shared post. Uploads switch on once it runs.
- Say it. Speak a text loop instead of typing it, turned into words on your phone and never sent anywhere.
- Smoother 1080p playback on slower phones.
- Native speakers reviewing our seven languages.
Coming up in this series
- 05: Honest Zoom, sharper without making things up
- 06: Real people without ID checks
- 07: Featherweight, how Data saver fits 11.11 seconds in about 100 KB
Try it at irl.ing. Hold the red dot.