A photo sharing app that isn't trying to be a TikTok clone
We launched Pidgeon a few weeks ago, and since then we've had a chance to fix a lot of bugs and upgrade the usability a significant amount. The app is made just for photo sharing. No videos, no NFTs, just pictures, comments, and chats. Each post is ranked like on reddit - a combination of the user upvote/downvotes and the amount of time passed since the post's creation. We're also trying to stay away from ads, and instead adopt a freemium model. The main reason for this is because people are a lot more concerned with privacy these days, and if we aren't serving ads, then the user knows…
In plain words
Pidgeon is a photo-sharing app focused on simplicity and privacy. It allows users to share photos, comment, and chat without videos, NFTs, or advertisements. Posts are ranked using a Reddit-style system combining user votes and time decay. The app uses a freemium model to avoid ad-based revenue, ensuring users that their data isn't being monetized. It attracts professional photographers and casual users seeking a straightforward photo-sharing experience.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
We launched Pidgeon a few weeks ago, and since then we've had a chance to fix a lot of bugs and upgrade the usability a significant amount. The app is made just for photo sharing. No videos, no NFTs, just pictures, comments, and chats. Each post is ranked like on reddit - a combination of the user upvote/downvotes and the amount of time passed since the post's creation. We're also trying to stay away from ads, and instead adopt a freemium model. The main reason for this is because people are a lot more concerned with privacy these days, and if we aren't serving ads, then the user knows that we don't have an incentive to steal their data. There's already a small community of about 1500 on the app, with a lot of them being professional photographers. So the photos going up look really nice (at least in my opinion). But we don't just want to be a community of people who consider themselves photographers - that's a mistake that other platforms like Flickr and VSCO make. To become widespread, you need to make your platform simple to use for the casual person; only catering to professionals will necessarily keep your community smaller than it otherwise would be. Users have been asking for a desktop client, and while we don't have one yet, we do plan to add it - and it won't take us as long as IG to do it, and neither will it be an afterthought where the UX is intentionally made poor so that you're pushed to use the app instead. But we want to polish the mobile app first before we get there, and there's still a lot of work to do since it's super early days. If you want to try it out, here's the link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.pidgeon.pidgeon https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pidgeon-simple-photo-sharing/id1605784768 And please do provide any feedback you have on the app! It really does help us make it better.
Does the same job
all alternatives →- AIAn Instagram Alternative2022 · ▲14
We just launched the first version of Pidgeon. It’s meant to be a sort of “reddit for photos”, and we’re trying to fix a lot of the problems instagram has. Quite a lot of people these days hate instagram for one reason or another. Maybe you hate the amount of ads it has. Maybe you hate the algorithm. Maybe you hate the shop section that no one ever uses. Maybe you hate the data collection, or reels, or that it just seems like a giant popularity contest. We want to address all of the above. Organic outreach The feed is organized chronologically. Here you will only see your own posts and the…
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Growth · 29d ago · astrapixels.com
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Hi HN! I made many small web games in the past with Unity or Phaser. But this time I wanted to make something completely on my own. So I coded a basic game framework in plain JavaScript, and used it to make Almost Pong. This was a really fun project that taught me a lot about JavaScript, and I plan to make more minimalist games with this framework. Interesting fact: Almost Pong doesn't load any assets, all sprites and sounds are generated with code. Happy to answer questions, and please let me know if you have any feedback on the game. Thanks!
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