Tapstack
The fastest way to stand apartis to stop standing in the same place.
Rethinking social media for more meaningful digital interactions.
Taptalk had momentum.
Fresh off a successful funding round from top-tier investors, the company was building a photo and video messaging app with an ambitious vision.
But it faced two challenges. It needed a new name due to a legal conflict, and more importantly, it needed to step out of Snapchat's shadow.
The team brought me in to help solve both.
At the heart of Taptalk was a simple interaction: users could send one-tap photos and videos to a small group of close friends. Like Snapchat, those moments disappeared after being viewed.
That ephemerality was part of the product's appeal.
It was also exactly what made the product feel derivative.
Rather than trying to build a better Snapchat, I wondered what would happen if we embraced the opposite philosophy.
What if the moments people shared became more valuable over time instead of disappearing forever?
That question quickly grew beyond messaging.
It became product strategy.
Together, we redesigned the experience so every photo and video became part of an ongoing visual conversation—a living archive of shared memories between close friends and family.
Instead of disappearing, moments accumulated, so that the product no longer revolved around fleeting communication. It revolved around deepening relationships.
Because I was asked to participate in both product strategy and naming, we had the opportunity to rethink the language alongside the experience.
First, I simplified the product vocabulary that had gotten confusing. Now, a photo became a Tap. A video became a Video Tap. And every ongoing collection of shared moments became a Stack—a living album you could revisit anytime.
The mental model was a stack of Polaroid photographs slowly growing over the course of a connection. And once that framework existed, the new company name became obvious.
Taptalk became Tapstack.
It preserved the equity the company had already built while perfectly expressing the product's new behavior.
The repositioning extended beyond the product itself.
While Snapchat encouraged filters, retakes, and broadcasting to large audiences, Tapstack celebrated authenticity.
No filters. No retakes. Just real moments shared with the people who mattered most.
That philosophy informed everything—from messaging and visual identity to design direction. Together with designer Annabel Mangold, we explored handwritten typography, imperfect layouts, and visual systems that reflected the spontaneity of real life rather than polished performance.
To launch the repositioning, I wrote and produced a one-minute brand film introducing the new identity.
Rather than demonstrating features, the film reminded people why sharing genuine moments with the people they loved mattered in the first place.
What began as a naming engagement became a complete reimagining of the product.
By aligning product strategy, naming, messaging, and visual identity around a single idea, Tapstack transformed from another disappearing-message app into a platform built around preserving meaningful relationships.
We didn't just rename the company. We changed what the product meant.
Once its meaning changed, everything else had somewhere true to grow from.