You know you've become a real startup when the Big Tech companies start ripping you off. And that seems to be the case with Retro, the popular photo-sharing app that has attracted all those who appreciate the possibility of more private sharing of photos and videos with friends and family. The company was caught off guard just recently after a post on X, formerly Twitter, provided the very first glimpse at a new Google Photos feature called "My Week." Unfortunately for Retro, the feature looks much like its photo-sharing app because it also encourages users to take photos to document their days, which are then showcased in a week-by-week format.

Retro co-founder and CTO Ryan Olson re-posted to X, his comment on the viral post being "feel like I've seen this somewhere …" with the inquisitive face emoji wearing a monocle.
An X post detailing the new Google Photos addition links to Android Authority's APK teardown, which dug into the Android app to find possible future changes. The site was able to switch on the My Week feature, suggesting a public rollout could be coming soon.

Its finding further goes to state that Google Photos is set to introduce a new tile in the existing Memories carousel titled "Introducing My Week," where an integrated setup wizard helps users select photos from their week they would like to share. Users can also invite others to view their weekly memories, an aspect similar to Retro, that lets people invite friends to its app for the same reason.

This blog mentions that after installation, the photos selected by the Google Photos user will then appear in a specialized card in the carousel under Memories. The users can also tap the card to add more photos, check those shared in previous weeks, and message contacts.

In other words, Google has taken much of the Retro app experience and made it into a feature to add to its larger Google Photos product.

Reached for comment, Google didn't speak to the similarities between its My Week feature and Retro, but did confirm that My Week was something the company was experimenting with in an invite-only mode. "We are always conducting experiments on new ways to help people reflect and share their memories with the people that matter most to them," said Google spokesperson Michael Marconi. "But we are looking forward to getting feedback about My Week and don't have anything else to share about future availability."

Retro CEO Nathan Sharp isn't losing any sleep over Google's intention to poach his app's experience, which is riddled with similarities. However, apart from making the user's week the core unit for the photo journal, he did comment that Google Photos also resembles Retro insofar as the journal is presented in a horizontally aligned "filmstrip" format with rounded corners on the outside.

Still, Sharp said, Google's product is not yet public and could change.
"We've worked inside of big companies as well, and we know there's a lot of testing going on inside, and oftentimes those are rough and they change dramatically before they ship," Sharp said. Before building Retro, he and Olson-the co-founder of Retro's parent company, Lone Palm Labs-were colleagues at Instagram and so understand what it's like to be on the other side of things.

At first blush, when you read this, you get a little irritated with it because it gives the impression that some things are being taken one to one, but … this isn't what they are shipping," he said. "They're not saying to be judged on what's on Twitter today. So I have to kind of step back and say, this is probably a team in progress.

If the feature does ship, Sharp says he won't underestimate Google's ability to compete in his space — and "potentially with the same exact designs." But he does think Retro users may appreciate that the app serves a specific purpose — that is, one that's dedicated to catching up with friends and family.

That is pretty far removed from an app you use to store 'every single photo and screenshot you've ever had,' as well as edit those, and free up storage space on your phone, which are the primary use cases for Google Photos.

"One of the things with Retro is that we have a really unique approach — both to the product but also the ethos of things," Sharp said. "On Retro, your photos are remarkably private. We don't sell or rent our user data to anyone. We aren't an ad-driven model. We don't have a public feed of people that are trying to build audiences, so you don't run into distractions outside of family and friends. We don't train AI models on any of your photos.". I think the simplicity, and the focus of that still helps us differentiate from any kind of bigger, multi-use case app.

Retro continues pushing out new features to cater to this audience as well. It launched collaborative journals, and the ability to send photo postcards right in the app, even if you don't know your friend's address. Instead, the app simply prompts a friend to input his or her address so a postcard can be sent; however, the app safeguards that address. Additionally, on Android devices, users can now send postcards directly from their camera roll itself. (And because Retro hasn't yet built out the payment flow, the feature is free to use.)

But the startup is also working on bringing its widget to iOS, which would enable users to change their iPhone's Home Screen, and it's developing a feature to enable direct sharing with "keyholders," or people who have been given access to a user's entire photo archive, not just photos from the past month.

Finally, Retro will monetize by introducing a premium subscription, and there has been no such product launch yet.