The challenge
- DAU, WAU, retention and LTV were flattening on the 2023 app, right as DIVO prepared to raise its next round.
- The client wanted a paid, on-brand AI face-recognition feature to open a new revenue line — on a tight budget and timeline.
- 80,000 existing users and all their content and history had to move to a new app without any loss or disruption.
Our solution
- Integrated the official Telegram client to add horizontal, creator-to-creator connections and keep users inside the app.
- Designed new screens on current design language (Liquid Glass, Telegram) for a modern face-lift.
- Migrated every existing user and their artifacts into the new app with zero data loss.
- Ran the backend on Teamgram and built Face Search on several AI models via InsightFace; AI-accelerated the build, with senior engineers and architects owning the core architecture and debugging.
Engineering challenges
- Shipping Telegram-grade groups, stories, calls and messaging inside a new client on a fixed budget and timeline.
- Migrating 80k live users and their full history without visible disruption.
- Tuning multi-model InsightFace similarity search for speed and accuracy on real fashion photography, not lab images.
- Laying an extensible mini-apps, bots and MCP platform without slowing the initial launch.
Inside the product
A look at what we shipped.
The outcome
A happy customer.
DIVO relaunched on iOS and Android with the full Telegram premium feature set — groups, stories, emoji, audio/video notes, calls and private messaging — all running on the client’s own servers under Telegram’s cryptography. Face Search lets agencies and casting teams find visually similar models in seconds and reach out directly. The 5-month rebuild lifted DAU by 56%, WAU by 44%, and nearly tripled retention in test campaigns, with a mini-apps/bots platform and an integrated MCP server ready for any AI agent to plug in next.
They rebuilt our app around Telegram without it ever feeling bolted on — and Face Search turned into a feature our agencies actually pay for.
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