The era of social media hit great advancements with the introduction of Facebook, Linked In, etc. A decade back, many predictions were made about social media. Some anticipated that it would fade away, while others claimed that it would bring new waves for businesses.

From the beginning to present times, in the race of social media application development, several different social media platforms came up and vanished quickly because they lacked the optimum user base.

Just like other entertainment & media app development, there are only a few top social media apps that have gained maximum attention and luckily they have this from the time of app launch. The reason behind this is - there always exists an uncertainty that the app being new, would stop working, which makes the user conscious about privacy and therefore they count only on the top-rated apps.

Let’s see what transformations headed towards in the social world in the past decade:

Real-time interactions

The time is long gone when getting the latest information on the happenings around the world was done through the newspaper. Today, people receive the information at the moment something happens. For this, social media is playing a very important role. Social media users can make any news or video go viral just in seconds. Businesses these days are monetizing and leveraging social media offerings to go viral and trending.

Expanded to businesses

Social media is no longer limited just to making friends or to connecting with friends online. Slowly but for sure, the value of marketing over social media began to appeal to the local businesses rather than just normal individuals. Marketing professionals soon understood that the world is going to travel through social media. Nowadays, a business without a Facebook page may not be considered a business in many aspects.


Used for enhancing CX

Social media platforms are strong marketing tools because customers these days don’t like ads. Using social media, brands and marketers are allowed to interact with the customers on a different and relatable level. Not only this, but social media also provides them with the potential to create more meaningful customer experiences. It allows the customers to raise their concerns and suggestions.

Conversations rather than Ads

The potential to talk directly to customers is extremely valuable and having a healthy interaction may provide better returns. Social media encourages such conversations with its new features and various content curation tools allowing users to enhance their social media experiences as per their preferences. Customers these days are more likely to skip ads, but would positively respond to a message.

Emerging Artificial Intelligence technologies like AR & VR

The social media platforms are aware that embedding the latest emerging technologies is the only way to hold on to the existing users and attract new ones. AI technologies like AR, VR, and other machine learning algorithms are turning out to be a hit on social platforms, giving users an ultimate interface and experience.

You must also read: How AI & ML are Transforming Social Media?

Video Content and Live Streaming Sessions

In the last few years, video content on social media apps has grown to be more prevalent. From Youtube to Instagram, almost every top social media platform has video streaming services. There are thousands of content creators on Youtube and other social platforms. Live streaming has also been popular lately, empowering influencers, brands, etc. to provide interactive live sessions to their audiences instead of scripted videos. One can also invest and expect good returns in media and entertainment app development like video streaming apps.

Read this to know more about Video Content: Future of Marketing in Social Media?

Making Brands Appear More Relatable

Social media sites have provided marketers with powerful platforms for storytelling. Unlike previous generations, customers these days are more inclined towards authenticity and prefer to spend on brands that appear more human and relatable than the old-school marketing platforms. The storytelling concept is unique to consumer experience and the brands profit from this by telling their brand stories and relaying values.

To succeed in the long run, one needs to pay attention to these changing trends and learn what works best for their niches for social media.

If you wish to be a part of this trend and you are looking for a social media development company, there can be no better choice than Consagous Technologies.

Consagous Technologies is the top and best social media app development company. With our highly experienced team of developers, we bring you the absolute best social media app with cutting-edge technology-loaded features and whatnot. Our team has experience in serving clients from various industries. We are also a top mobile app development company in the USA. To know more about us visit consagous.co now!

Because every piece of information can now be accessed with just a few clicks, social media apps have actually consumed a big chunk of our daily hours. In fact, the increasing number of smartphone users has been a big reason for the rise of social media app development on the whole.

Because technology is also growing at a rapid pace, vast opportunities are now opening up for everyone to explore the potential of reaching out to people with social media apps.

If you are someone looking to cash on the idea of creating a good social media platform, this guide will surely prove to be of help.

Let’s get underway then, shall we?

Social Networks

You might know names like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. But what exactly does the term social network refer to?

In a single line, social networks are tools that enable digital communication through which users share and consume content on a common platform. Till a few years ago, such communication tools were only confined to computer systems. However, thanks again to smartphones, people access social media at their convenience through multiple apps.

Social Media Apps- Types

Social media apps are divided into multiple categories. If you are looking to get a social media app developed, a proper understanding needs to be there of the different types of social media apps, so that the road ahead is pretty clear.

Social media apps are largely divided into the following categories-

Media Sharing Networks

The name of this category makes it pretty easy to understand. These networks allow the sharing of different kinds of content like live videos, photos, and videos. As far as this type is concerned, there is not much difference between media sharing networks and social media apps these days.

Examples- YouTube, Instagram.

Social Media Networks

The main motive behind social media networks is to facilitate the connection between different people and individuals.

Mostly, social media networks allow for resonating with different like-minded people, uploading and sharing photos and videos among many others.

Examples- Facebook, LinkedIn

Community & Discussion Forums

Such platforms help in getting answers to different queries, get new ideas, and even share their experiences.

Examples- Reddit, Quora

Blogging Platforms

Blogging social media platforms allow users to create blogs and then publish them. With writing as a hobby and great writing skills, these platforms allow for posting on multiple devices.

Example- Medium

Technologies Involved in a Social Media App

Technology stack has an important role in the perfect social networking app development. The higher the scale of the project, the more elaborate will be the technology stack.

In the present day, there is a huge number of programming languages, technologies, and frameworks that are used for developing apps and websites. Because technologies are pretty dynamic in nature, they tend to fluctuate quite a lot.

In the end, the technology you choose will have a big impact on the overall project and its goals.

Here is a brief look at the technologies that are broadly used in social media app development-

Admin Panel

For creating a sound and efficient admin panel, Angular, jQuery, React and Material UI are taken into use.

iOS and Android App Stack

XCode IDE, Swift, and Objective are taken help of in the case of iOS development, while Android Studio, Kotlin, Retrofit, and Java help with the Android development.

Backend/API

To ensure a smooth operation in the backend, .NET, Ruby, Postgre DB, and Redis are in prominent use.

Time and Costs for Social Media App Development

It is important to understand that an app that’s designed and created from scratch will always stand out in performance and functionality when compared with a mere customized template of an app.

Obviously, creating a social media app will surely involve the investment of time and money.

Timeline

If we talk about the timeline, developing a typical social media app will take about 1800-2000 hours on average. These hours will typically include designing the UI/UX, app development, and other related tasks like project management, testing, and deployment.

Development Costs

The major costs in designing a social media app are involved in the amount that is being paid to developers for their services, and also the kind of features that are needed in accordance with the client’s needs.

An MVP social media app, with all the basic features and functionality, will cost around $30,000. This cost will fluctuate depending on the features that will have to be added to the MVP app.

Features that Cannot Be Ignored in a Social Media App

There are no two ways that every social media app will try to be different and offer something unique to the users but in hindsight, there are a few basic features that are very essential to every app.

Here are such basic features-

• Feed scrolling
• Liking posts on the feed
• User profile
• Chat
• Push notifications
• CMS (Content Management System) for admins and users.
• Analytics

As every new day passes by, technology takes rapid steps to more progress. If you think you have an idea for a social media app with enough firepower to make a mark in the market, you should surely take a shot at it.

As a reader, if you are intrigued by stats right at the beginning, take this-

There are a mind-boggling 3.96 billion users who use one or the other social media app to consume some kind of content!

Well, considering how these apps have become an integral part of our daily lives, the number is by no means surprising. As far as social media app development the interactivity and fun they provide to the users are there for everyone to see.

Do you want to know how integral social media apps have become? The last time you might have picked your device, chances are high that you would have opened a social media app.

More to highlight their role? No? We guessed so!

Features that Make For an Amazing Social Media App

If you are looking for social media application development, you already know about the numerous benefits these apps bring with them. The competition might be intense, but there is always room for more players, as long as the app is able to engage and pull users.

A great social media app needs to have a certain set of features to make it stand out from the rest. These are the features that cannot be ignored by top social app developers for your app.

Ensuring the presence of these features will surely make your social media app stand out, without a doubt-

As the category itself, the entire point of social media apps is to bring people from different walks of life together and share their preferences out in the world. To achieve this, hassle-free connectivity becomes an important prerequisite.

In a social media app, therefore, it is pretty important that there are absolutely no issues regarding the overall connectivity and navigation. The signup, login, and interaction processes should not prove to be a problem for any app user whatsoever.

As far as social media app development goes, the connectivity features need to be top-notch every time.

The main purpose that drives social media apps is making people access an environment that provides them the liberty to share as well as interact with the content that gets shared by others.

A complex interface that is too much in-your-face is not advisable as it takes away the user’s attention from the overall functionality that’s on offer. To add to it, the colors used in the app should also bring a sense of peace and calm for the users.

This will further consolidate the interface and stick in line with the overall idea behind the app.

If you are reading this article online, you surely will have heard of Instagram. This app has become such a staple that people with even the most basic knowledge of the digital world are aware of it.

The ease of access to connect with other people is astonishing, and this is one feature that needs to be embedded in any social media app that is aiming for success.

For any kind of social media app development solutions, interactivity holds high regard, and this is exactly where a social media app needs to hit for the best results.

For any social media app to become a rage and resonate perfectly, it is crucial that the app gets integrated with other well-known platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn. This intertwining enables better social growth and organic following than users can possibly imagine.

For driving more people to an app, an easy invite option, directly through mail or messaging will be another feather for your social media app.

These are the four features that we find immensely important to take a good social media app a few levels up and make it a great option for target users. Other than these user-centric features, privacy and security also are important constituents.

If you have an idea about a social media app and wish to get it out to the world, you should definitely connect with Consagous Technologies, widely regarded as a top social media app development company. It comprises a team of experienced developers that cater to all kinds of different client requirements with the utmost professionalism.

Did you know that 45% of the entire world population is using one or the other social media platform? Yes, it's true. In the past few years, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc have gathered around 3.5 billion users. But do you know the names of each and every social media platform? You can't. Because not all the platforms are Facebook or Twitter.

So, how can someone create a successful social media platform today when there is a huge competition out there? The first should be finding a suitable idea that can actually make a difference.

We had an idea and all we needed now was someone who can make it happen that is a social network development company. Let's show you how we chose the best fit for our idea.

4 Tips to Consider for Choosing The Right  Company-

Have They Done Anything Before?

The word that comes here is 'Portfolio’. Before hiring any social network development agency, it's important for you to know what have they done before. Have they built any such platform? Are they aware of the latest industry trends? And also, if they have done any such projects, were they successful?

Check their portfolio and ask for some case studies and if everything goes right then proceed with the next step.

Focus On User Engagement

It is highly recommended to choose an agency that practices design thinking and keep end-users at the center of all the development. The success rate of any social media platforms is highly dependent on the initial sets of users who later become the brand advocates and helps your platform grow. When an agency understands user empathy, it results in the development of a platform that echoes well with end-users.

Purpose-driven and Original

While it's always imperative to check the portfolio of the agency, it's equally important that the company serves original ideas. Ask them first, are they ready to create customised solutions for you? Are they open to providing add-ons and unique ideas for your platform? Before hiring, make sure that they aren't serving you copy-paste ideas.

Transparent Communication Process

Communication always plays an important role in the development of any kind of platform. Find a social network development company that keeps a consistent interaction with you. Look for a company who doesn't mind sharing the working process with you. If the communication process is good, you'll be able to easily communicate your ideas and requirements with them.

Conclusion-

To build a platform that can actually make a difference, the second most crucial part after deciding an idea is to choose a perfect social network development agency for you. But as the process is not as easy as it seems, you should consider talking to someone who has already been through the process. If you don't know someone who has already done it all, this tiny guide can help you in the process. Just follow the tips and you will surely end up with the right company by your side. As your search for the right company is over, don’t wait and start with your Minimum Viable Product. Launch soon, fail fast and grow faster!