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Photosharing app launched publicly on Monday and instantly skyrocketed to the top of 鈥檚 App Store. If you鈥檝e been on Twitter recently, you likely saw聽 people in the startup/VC world talking about it.

If you鈥檙e scrambling to catch up and download Poparazzi, here鈥檚 what you need to know about the buzzy new social app.

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What is Poparazzi?

Poparazzi is a photo-sharing app that encourages users to take and share photos of their friends. There鈥檚 no front-facing camera, so selfies aren鈥檛 a thing. Instead, users snap photos of their friends and tag them, mimicking a paparazzi shot.聽

A user鈥檚 profile is made up of photos taken by their friends. Users also have the ability to restrict who can take photos of them and which photos show up on their profile.聽

鈥淲e built Poparazzi to take away the pressure to be perfect,鈥� the company wrote in a announcing its launch. 鈥淲e did this by not allowing you to post photos of yourself, putting the emphasis where it should鈥檝e been all along: on the people you鈥檙e with. On Poparazzi, you are your friend鈥檚 paparazzi, and they are yours.鈥�

In a way, Poparazzi is similar to Dispo in that both promote candid images with a sharing element. Both are less about fine-tuning for and more about capturing a moment as it is.聽

, co-founded by popular YouTuber, was the buzzy new photo sharing app a few months ago when it raised a $20 million Series A led by in February. The next month, however, the app was caught up in controversy after allegations of rape were made against one of Dobrik鈥檚 former associates. Spark Capital then said it would cut ties with the company.

Poparazzi鈥檚 public launch comes as more people are receiving their COVID-19 vaccines and society begins to re-open. Poparazzi could be 鈥渢he perfect app for 鈥榟ot vax summer,鈥� according to principal investor and head of content .

鈥淭he app could come to characterize the post-pandemic reunion with friends the way embodied the physical isolation from friends at the start of lockdown last year,鈥� in a blog post yesterday.

Social media companies raising money

Poparazzi developer , which is based in Marina Del Rey, California, raised $2 million in funding from investment firm in 2018, per Crunchbase. TTYL, which was founded by and , has released other social apps, including the app TTYL.

Poparazzi is among a number of new social media startups to quickly gain popularity in the past year,聽 including Dispo and audio-based social app Clubhouse, which has raised $110 million to date led by .

Photo sharing companies alone have raised , and raised more than $129 million in funding last year, according to Crunchbase data. Social media companies in general raised more than $4 billion in funding last year, and have raised nearly .

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