Desktoply

Desktoply was a desktop and homescreen sharing service I created in 2011, based on an idea from me and two friends. People uploaded screenshots of their desktop or phone homescreen to show off their setup, and browsed everyone else’s for inspiration.

The very first version was a basic PHP site. I then started learning Rails and rebuilt it, which made Desktoply my first live Rails site. Over the years it went through a number of versions, including:

• A Pro plan, which removed adverts and let users upload more screenshots
• A full JSON API, built for an iOS app
• Rackspace Cloud Files for storing screenshots and user avatars

It was featured by sites including The Next Web, Lifehacker and AppAdvice.

I shut the service down at the end of 2015.