Otay vs Locket Widget
Last checked: October 21, 2026, against each app’s own website and App Store listing.
Locket and Otay both put the people you love on your Home Screen in photos. Locket is instant and spontaneous: snap, send, and it lands on your friends' widgets, with up to 20 friends. Otay is for exactly two people and slower on purpose: one shared quest a day, kept as a journal.
In their words: Locket describes itself as a widget that shows live photos from your best friends right on your Home Screen. Otay: Otay is a private photo journal app for two people, on iPhone. Every day both of you get the same small photo quest and answer it with a back-camera photo and a selfie, a caption and a place, and your two answers sit side by side in a shared journal only the two of you can see, with a photo calendar, a map, throwbacks, a kind streak map, a wardrobe for your two little characters and Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets.
We make Otay. We have tried to be fair, and every fact about Locket Widget below comes from the sources listed at the end. If something is out of date, tell us at hi@otay.app and we will fix it.
At a glance
| Feature | Otay | Locket Widget |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | A daily photo quest for two, kept as a shared journal | Send photos that appear instantly on friends' Home Screen widgets |
| Who it is for | Exactly two people | Up to 20 friends; a Crush or Best Friend widget for one person |
| Daily prompt | One shared photo quest a day | None. Send whatever, whenever |
| Photos | A back-camera photo and a selfie each, side by side, with a caption and a place | One photo at a time, with a history and a monthly recap video |
| Widgets | Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets | The widget is the app |
| Looking back | Journal, photo calendar, map and throwbacks | A history of Lockets and recap videos |
| Platforms | iPhone, iOS 17 or later (the App Store also lists iPad). Not on Android yet. | iPhone and Android |
| Free plan | Free, no time limit and no ads. You see your last 30 days of memories (at least your newest 15); older ones lock, never deleted. | Free; Locket Gold is an optional subscription |
| One subscription for both? | Yes. When either partner subscribes to Otay Premium, both get it. | Not stated on the pages we checked |
| App Store rating (US) | Not enough ratings for the App Store to show an average yet. | 4.8 from about 582,000 ratings; an App Store Editors' Choice |
| Paid plan (US App Store) | Otay Premium, monthly or yearly. See /pricing. | Locket Gold, several price points listed (for example $3.99 and $36.00) |
Locket Widget is the better pick if
- You want spontaneous photos from your partner all day, the moment they take them.
- You also want your best friends and family on your Home Screen, not only your partner.
- One of you uses Android.
Otay is the better pick if
- You want something for just the two of you, with no friend list at all.
- You want a prompt, so you are not left wondering what to send.
- You want your photos kept as a journal with a calendar, a map and throwbacks, not a stream.
The short version
Locket is the better live photo widget, especially for a group. Otay is for a couple who wants one shared moment a day that is still there in a year.
Sources
All checked on October 21, 2026.
- locket.com: https://locket.com/
- locket.com/get (App Store and Google Play links): https://locket.com/get
- Locket Widget on the App Store (US): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/locket-widget/id1600525061
- Otay on the App Store (US): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/couples-photo-journal-otay/id6769610508
- otay.app, Otay's privacy page: https://otay.app/privacy
- otay.app, Otay's pricing page: https://otay.app/pricing
Otay turns small moments into a shared journal, just for the two of you.
One small photo quest a day. You both answer, and your two halves hang side by side, in a journal with no feed, no algorithm and no ads. Free to download on the App Store.
Download Otay on the App Store
