As per Statista, Facebook is the top social network in the United States, with 169.76 million mobile users accessing the Facebook app in September 2019. The company’s other apps, Instagram and Facebook Messenger ranked second and third with 121 and 106 million users, respectively. Back in India, WhatsApp, Instagram, Helo, and Facebook are among the most used apps.
The above stats are hardly surprising have caught the fancy of users across the world. That is why most of the on-screen time of the users, especially the young generation, is consumed by social media apps. With an ever-increasing number of smartphone users, there are infinite opportunities for social media apps with advanced features.
This offers an opportune time to the entrepreneurs who have been planning to enter the social media space through innovative offerings to the world. If you belong to that tribe, read on as this article will reveal the types and trends in social media apps. These insights should help when you go for your social media app development.
Now, let’s check out the broad categories of apps.
Social network apps
These apps help users to connect with other users. People can follow, like, share and comment on other’s posts. We can use social networking apps for personal needs (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) or professional communication (LinkedIn).
Media sharing networks
These social apps are primarily used to share media files like pictures, videos, GIFs, among other media files. Prime examples include Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Vimeo and TikTok.
Networks for consumer reviews
Such social media apps are for the customers by the customers. The customers leave reviews in the apps so that other customers can benefit from their reviews. Some prominent names in this category are TripAdvisor and Yelp.
Community and discussion forums
These social media apps offer excellent platforms for the users as they could freely ask questions, share their views, discuss anything under the sun, share experiences or perspectives on the topics they care for. Some known social media apps in this category include Reddit and Quora.
Bookmarking and content curation apps
Users of these social media apps can share their own content and discover the content of other users and save it. Apps like Pinterest and Flipboard belong to this category.
Blogging and publishing platforms
These social media platforms allow users to create their own blogs and publish their content freely and easily. Tumblr and Medium are two prime examples of this category.
Anonymous social networks
The younger generation loves this category of social media apps. Such apps allow people to chat with strangers. Some most-used apps of this category are Whisper and Slowly.
Through the above list, you can decide which category of social media app you wish to go for. The above list also gives an idea of the competition in each category.
Social Media Trends
Now, let’s check out the latest social media trends. These trends will help you know the features that are in vogue so that you can incorporate the relevant features for your social media app.
- Face filters: Snapchat and Instagram are the trendsetters here. They are relevant as people, especially youngsters, love this a lot.
- Artificial Intelligence and chatbots: The chatbots came into existence a couple of years back and since then have gained immense popularity.
- Live streaming (live videos): FB, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, among others are already using this feature. Live streaming is gaining popularity by the day.
Once you have decided your category and shortlisted the trends to incorporate in your social media app, it is time to get down to app features, design, and development.
Time to get in touch with the social media app development experts
Now that you have finalized all the elements of your social media app, it is time to meet the team of experts to discuss and bring your dream app to life.
Engineers at Sankalp are trained to brainstorm with the clients and come up with immaculate suggestions that invariably leads to excellent mobile apps.
Sankalp has been a top-notch mobile app development company with immense experience in app development for every niche, both in iOS and android app development. They have successfully delivered over 4000 projects to over 4000 clients spread across the world.
For them, the client’s success is of paramount importance, and the entire team works around this philosophy. To bring your social media app to life, come, get in touch with the experts today!