Social Media App Development: Key Features to Consider

• 1887 – You had 4-5 mates from school and neighbor
• 1997 – You had 15-20 friends connected through mobile phones
• 2017 – You have 2017 friends, followers, and fans

The connectivity among people has increased due to the presence of social media; you have all your pals connected via social media platforms Research says that the number of people active on social media is approximately 2.46 billion and every year more than 1 million active social media users are added; Isn’t that something very huge?

From teenagers to adults, businesses to non-profit organizations; all agree that social media is one of the most important mechanisms that enable us to connect with the world.

Key Essential Features of a Social Media App

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Whatsapp are some of the social media apps which have been dominating the app charts for a long and to develop such apps it is necessary to comprehend user experience and significant features.

To be precise, sharing, commenting, finding memories, topics of interest, etc. is what fascinates users on social media.

Here are 6 key features every social media app should have:

#1: Sign up and integrate with existing social media 

To start with, you must provide an easy and convenient way to access your service. Integrating with existing social media accounts can speed up the process and makes the sign-up process a smooth ride. It is very tedious for any user to fill out the forms as they may have done already.

So, to provide a better user experience, it is necessary to provide several ways to export data like first name, last name, etc. Generally, the most user uses Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on the go, and integrating feature like ‘sign up with Facebook, Instagram, etc.’ will enable them to sign up with the account in seconds.

This is a hassle-free way to import data and contacts and the best process to increase the number of your social media app users as users always look for user-friendly navigation with advanced functionality.

#2: Select the best platforms

To develop social media app, you should choose the platform in order to accelerate the process of software development. With such intense competition in the market, it is necessary that your app is supported on all platforms, especially iOS and Android.

You must select the platform that provides built-in support for developing the best 2D and 3D graphics which helps to bring more user engagement. Choosing the best platform and testing on different devices is important as it would increase the global reach, enhance the credibility of your brand in the IT services market and make your app picture-perfect.

Both iOS and Android platforms have authenticated levels of security and so it makes sure that your app doesn’t get crashed and delivers the best app performance.

#3: Self Expression

Once the user has logged in to your social media app, the most important thing they look for is their presence, as they want to feel unique, and show the world how creative, extraordinary, and out-of-the-box they are.

So, every social media app should provide customization of the profile, backgrounds, interests, preferences, location, number of followers/friends, and recent activity. This would help the users to enhance their credibility and improve their identity.

Moreover, mobile app developers can also provide customized fonts and attractive write-ups to make the app interesting. You must develop an app that has a plethora of options for profile personalization.

Most successful social network app provides the following:-

• Tools that make user-generated content look unique
• Simplify the process of sharing content
• Target specific audiences

For instance, Instagram has awesome filters that make the app attractive. Flickr is a big photo-sharing app that is targeted only at aspiring photographers.

#4: Build a network – Invite and connect

Any social media app makes sense only if they have friends and interesting people to look for. So, your app must have an algorithm that maps friends and people with common interests and enables them to connect/ follow in a single click.

To connect with each other, the user typically needs to approve this action, and to follow something is a one-way process. Some apps even offer you to connect with people from the other connected network.

Additionally, the connection can also be in the form of groups, events, social networks, etc. Groups are the community through which the user is indirectly connected to various people with shared preferences and interests.

#5: News feed

This is exactly what users look for when they open social media applications in the first place and continue to use them. In order to stir up your social media app, you need to feed the user-generated post that includes stories, status, pictures, videos, etc.

Features like comments, likes, favorites, etc. help to communicate with other users and provide them with a platform to express their opinion. Not having such curated content is like driving a car without fuel.

It all depends on how you want to show the content – you can display the feed in chronological order or use algorithms to generate the feed from most important to least important. Some apps also use machine learning algorithms to display the feeds as per users’ preferences.

For instance: Facebook and Instagram are arranging their feed from important to least important. But it is best to offer the arrangement of a news feed that suits the specifications of the social networking app.

#6: Search + Messaging + Notification

Your social media app must be designed in a way that it can search the user by hashtags, names, last name, location, etc as this helps the user to make newer connections in an easy way.

You can also provide suggestions to make new connections as per the information in their profile. Most social media app has chats, group conversation feature, calling as well as conference calling feature which makes the conversation more personal.

You can also use third-party services to develop real-time chat applications in your app. Push Notification is something that delivers your message instantly. Outline your algorithm that makes the subscription to the push notification much easier. Push Notification creates more user engagement than email lists and is also less disturbing and highly cheaper than traditional SMS.

Search, messaging, notification are the powerful tools of social networking that make your app stand tall amongst competitors.

Wrapping It Up

Today, in the IT services market, developing a social media app is the most happening thing but it needs expertise and experience from the technical perspective to make it successful. If you are looking to develop a robust, reliable, and result-driven social networking app, a professional mobile app development company is what you need.

Being one of the top social media app development companies, we have experts that can season your app – in and out.

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