After twenty-five TestFlight builds, a year of quiet use with a couple hundred close friends, and far too many arguments about what to leave out, A/SIDE is out today on iPhone and Android.
Here’s the short version.
What it is
A/SIDE is a private photo app for the friends who actually know you. You take a picture. You pick who sees it — family, close friends, whoever. They see it, in order, on time. Then you put your phone down.
That’s the whole thing.
What it isn’t
Not an algorithm. Posts in your feed appear in strict reverse-chronological order from the people you’ve added. No ranking, no “suggested for you,” no engagement-based reordering.
Not an ad network. Free is free. Pro is $4.99 a month or $39 a year, and it includes a Family plan for up to six people. That’s the whole monetization story.
Not an AI product. We don’t train models on your photos. We don’t auto-tag, auto-caption, or auto-anything. The only AI in the app is on-device voice dictation for captions, comments, and DMs — and the audio never leaves your phone.
Not a public square. A/SIDE has no global feed, no explore tab, no trending page, no discovery, no search. There’s nowhere to land if you don’t know somebody. A friend inside sends you an invite code, or you ask to follow someone who already uses it — both sides have to say yes.
What we did build
Groups. Make a group for family, for your climbing crew, for your book club. Pick who sees each post. A photo of your kid doesn’t have to go to the same 200 people who saw the last meme you found funny.
Voice. Real-time dictation for captions, comments, and DMs. State-of-the-art, fully on-device. Talk, don’t type.
A home screen widget. A quiet 2×2 on your home screen that shows your closest friend’s most recent post. No badge count. No notification noise. You glance at your home screen and see Maya’s roll from yesterday.
Feed history. Free gets 7 days. Pro gets all of it, forever, with higher-resolution uploads and the Family plan thrown in.
How to get it
Download on the App Store or get it on Google Play. Invite the friends who actually know you. Post something. Then put your phone down.
Welcome to the B-side.