Locket Widget was built by Matt Moss, a solo developer who had been working on a much more complex social app when he stepped back and asked a simpler question: what is the single most intimate thing a smartphone could do for two people who care about each other? The answer he landed on was: show them a live photo of each other on their home screen. Nothing else. Just that.
The product was built in weeks, not months. The iOS widget API (introduced in iOS 14 in September 2020) had created a new channel for apps to appear on the home screen — a channel that was deeply personal because the home screen is the most frequently visited real estate on any phone. Apps that earned widget placement were in front of users every time they unlocked their device. Locket understood this and built a product whose entire purpose was the widget, not the app behind it.
The growth loop was elegantly engineered. To receive photos on your widget, you had to invite the sender. To send photos, you had to invite the recipient. This mutual invitation requirement was not a limitation — it was the product. Every time someone's home screen showed a Locket widget, it was visible to anyone who glimpsed their phone. The question "what's that on your home screen?" created thousands of organic conversations that converted into downloads.