In the last few years, photo-sharing apps have capitalized on the idea that Instagram has become too curated, creating spaces for users to share unfiltered photos from their camera rolls. Locket<\/a> tapped into lockscreen-based sharing, Retro<\/a> took a photo journaling route, and Yope<\/a> is building Instagram for private groups.<\/p>\n Now, Mayank Bidawatka, co-founder of Indian social network Koo, which was shut down last year after collapsed buyout talks<\/a>, is releasing a new photo-sharing app called PicSee<\/a>. The app, released Thursday, both on iOS<\/a> and Android<\/a>, aims to automatically detect and share photos of friends that are in your camera roll without you having to use any messaging system like WhatsApp or Instagram.<\/p>\n Bidawatka said that your friends probably have hundreds of photos of you that you don\u2019t have. Either they forgot to send you those photos, or they themselves have forgotten about those photos. PicSee scan faces in your camera gallery and picks out photos of your friends.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been thinking about the problem of personal photo sharing for years now,\u201d Bidawatka told TechCrunch over a call. \u201cLast year, after we announced shutdown of Koo, I had time to rethink this problem and work on it again.\u201d <\/p>\n If your friends are on PicSee, you can send them a sharing request. Once they accept, they\u2019ll receive your first batch of photos of them. After that, the app will detect new photos of them in your camera roll and prompt you to send those, too.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t send them instantly, the app will automatically send those photos to them after 24 hours. Before that, you can review the photos that you are sending and choose not to send some. The photos are stored locally on your device in PicSee\u2019s storage. You can choose to download them to your device storage. Users can also recall photos after they have sent them, which removes the images from PicSee on the receiver\u2019s end.<\/p>\n The company says it has implemented a bunch of privacy controls. The app does all the processing of identifying faces on the device. The company said that while sending photos, it establishes an encrypted connection. The photos are stored on your device, and the company doesn\u2019t store anything in the cloud. Bidawatka said the app also has a filter on NSFW pictures and blocks screenshots.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco<\/span> PicSee\u2019s biggest challenge may be its selectivity. While it makes sense to have an always-on photo connection with close friends, family, or partners, most people wouldn\u2019t want that level of automatic sharing with everyone they know. That creates a hurdle. Users already send photos to these close contacts through WhatsApp, iMessage, Instagram, and Snapchat, so PicSee will need to convince them to change their default behavior for a relatively small circle of relationships.<\/p>\n Further, while the app detects photos of your friends on your phone, it doesn\u2019t solve the problem of when someone asks you for a photo you took at an event you went to together, such as a concert, a wedding, or a party. <\/p>\n The company said it wants to address these social engagement features. The app already has a chat feature, which allows people who are in a picture to leave comments under it.<\/p>\n The company said it is also working on allowing users to create and manage albums, suggest albums, remove duplicates, and integrate with Google Photos\/iCloud. The company also wants to use its face detection tech for videos on your camera roll.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Mayank-Sitting_PicSee_white_bg.jpeg?w=436\")
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Approve-friends.jpeg?w=337\")