Everybody knows the app VSCO. You can find a link to most people’s account in their Instagram or Twitter bio. This app never really received a major hype on social media, it was never a necessity, yet people continue to use it. Here’s why:
VSCO is free, for the most part. You can pay for additional filters, but other than that, all the editing features are free.
The features this app has for editing pictures consist of filters, exposure, contrast/saturation, highlight, shadow, tints, vignette, etc etc. When VSCO was created in 2011, Instagram, which was the reigning photo-sharing app at the time, did not have all of these editing features, which made VSCO a desirable place to edit, and then post to IG.
However, VSCO should not be downplayed as an app comparable to Instagram. These two apps exist for different purposes; Instagram is purely a social media, while VSCO is a platform for photographs.
In recent media, VSCO has been praised for it’s layout and decision to not make their app an environment where followers and likes matter. On VSCO you can follow people, and you can like pictures, but only you and the other person will know as it is not advertised underneath the picture (like on Instagram). When you post something on VSCO, it is called publishing. The app is designed to share photos in a simplistic way, opposed to Instagram, where people falter over what to post and how often.
This benefits photographers as their photographs are displayed just as much but are not diluted down to how many likes.
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