Social media application is the most widely used and popular application in such a contemporary epoch. Social media app development has changed the life of many people and made them more manageable.
The craze for using social media applications has risen during the pandemic time. Everyone was engaged deeply with the applications due to their attractive features and unique UI/UX design.
Many top mobile app development companies have been observing the increasing usage of social media apps, and they have been inspired to develop more appealing applications for user’s convenience.
As the trends and technologies are emerging and evolving rapidly, app users expect more from the application and overcome their needs and expectations. Developers are trying to make the latest applications.
If you are a startup company, you can compete with the market by launching your social media app. In the blog below, we will see social networking app development in detail.
Benefits of Social Media App
Social media is a type of application beneficial to both owners and users. Below are some of the benefits of developing a social media app.
Know your community
Every universal social media platform has its set of terms and conditions for sharing information. If you know your community, you can easily give accurate information to the targeted audience.
Before developing the application, you must limit your app information to the targeted audience to attract more customers and provide a smooth user experience. It can also result in a long-term relationship.
Customized social media app
When you decide on universal social network app development as your marketing platform, you cannot predict the response you will get. Social media apps are a precious jewel to online businesses and the easiest way to market their business.
You will first have to create a page about your identity on the social media app according to your requirements, and then you can sustain yourself in the competition. Developing a customized social media app will benefit your business and reduce the competition.
Bring out your creative experience
Your brain will suggest a plan and the conditions to rule over social media app usage. You will be able to cut off the creative edge and showcase your idea to your targeted audience.
Your social networking app development will imply a myriad of scope to incorporate your innovations in your way. Developing and using a social media app is necessary if you don’t want your exclusive business vision to be negotiated.
An in-built custom digital marketplace
As social media platforms are considered the most trending app for online trading, the prearranged marketplace standards will make them dull.
Thus trading your contribution to the community over social media platforms will come far from the nominal price. Nevertheless, you can insert an online marketplace platform within the application by choosing a personalized social media app development.
Future of Social Media App
Social media apps are gradually climbing up the growth ladder with consistent steps, and the pandemic has contributed to the increase in the usage of social media apps.
Social media apps have become an integral part of our lives because of their usage and provided facilities. Nowadays, social media applications are not just used to socialize but also to display the skills of knowledgeable people, advertise commercial offerings, and purchase and sell a variety of products and services.
No matter the industry, social media app development companies have begun to interact with their current and capable customers over common social media apps such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.
Types of Social Media App
A plethora of types of social media applications is available in the market from which you can choose the best social media app to compete in the market. You can also get various on-demand app ideas for startups.
Below are some of the major types of social media applications that are widely used.
Social networks
Such networks are mainly used to target people who want to stay connected to each other. Examples of such social media apps are Twitter and Facebook. The main aim of these types is to remain interconnected with knowledgeable and similar people online and share their views or opinions.
Media sharing network
As the name says, social media apps will allow you to share media files of almost all types but are not just limited to photos, videos, GIFs, and many more. It will also include advanced mobile app development for media sharing such as YouTube, Tik Tok, etc.
Discussion forums
Such platforms are mainly used for uploading and answering others, making it a platform to share experiences, learn, and some tips on various topics.
Bookmarking and content creation
Such social media apps are developed with one main motto to share and explore different content. An example of such an application is Pinterest.
Consumer review networks
In such a social media network, customers are allowed to check or write reviews on a particular business they are willing to write about or have already worked with.
Features of social media app
Features are the paramount art of every application because it is the one thing that can make social media applications different from each other. It depends on the way you develop and designs the features.
To make your work easier, below is a list of features you can add to your social media app development.
User-friendly UI
The user interface is the first stage where your users will judge you based on their experience and interaction with the application. The user interface of the social media app integrates a list of elements that includes the representation of content, media, input controls, and much more.
Regardless of your targeted audience, an attractive and straightforward user interface on your social media app clearly guides your audience to reach where they want to go and get what they want.
An attractive and accessible design
The success of social media Android app development reputation depends straightly on its design. The design also shares its priority with accessibility because randomly combined, individually appealing, non-adjusting elements will, at last, create confusion, and it will not access properly.
It is crucial to have a social media application that is attractive yet easy to use and accessible that can attract more customers to your app.
Safe login
Using social media applications deals with sharing information, and there is also a chance to publicize it. For that, ensuring safety and security is a must to have.
With the increasing number of social media users, cyberattacks and theft will also increase. So making a safe login for users with a unique identification will help you gain users’ faith to use your app.
Networking element
Developing social media applications for your business will be useless without having networking features. You can enhance your social media app by adding a convenient search and recommendation feature to make it simple to create a network by adding the members following them.
Astonishing content-sharing options
Sharing content over the network is an essential and fundamental requirement. All social media applications allow sharing content, so your app can get more attention and provide convenience.
You can also provide a customized choice to the customers to select with whom they can share their content.
Messaging and live chat
Currently, the social media application also provides the facility of messaging and live chat with their contacts. Many social media applications offer a facility for advanced chatting options.
The app owner’s main aim is to provide an engaging design for messaging by adding functionality such as group chat, video calls, filters, and much more.
Open forum
In this modern era, social media applications enable people to give their opinions, discuss common problems, or even show their talent. So social media iOS app development, a type of forum, will create a close bond with various people.
The technology stack and a team for social media app development
Developing a social media application for various Android and iOS will require multiple experts to develop a seamless and appealing application.
- Project manager
- UI/UX designer
- Dedicated iOS developers
- Professional Android developers
- Back-end developer
- QA testers
Technology stack
Various tools and technologies are required to develop a social media application based on the latest and most advanced technologies.
iOS app
- Programming language: Swift
- Networking: Alamofire
Android app
- Programming language: Kotlin
- Networking: OkHttp3
Back-end development
- Programming language: Node.js
- Framework: Express 4
- Database: MySQL
- Chat: Socket.io
- Signup: Amazon SES, Amazon SNS
- API: Swagger
Tools
- Push notifications: FCM
- Geolocation: Google Maps
- Storage: Amazon S3
- Emails: Elastic Email
- Search: Elastic Search
- AR filters: ML Kit, ARCore
How to Develop a Social Media App?
You will be able to see the steps involved in developing a social media application. You can also rely on a mobile app development agency to develop attractive and unique social media as per your business requirements.
Figure out the purpose and targeted audience
As we have already seen about the various types of social media app development networks and for whom they can be used, it will be easy for you to choose the type of social media app.
After finding out the purpose of app development, you must now deeply understand your targeted audience and even your competitors and how they will present their apps. You can jump to the development stage by understanding the three crucial things.
Choose your features and functionalities
Assuming that the market of social media applications is a bit complex to navigate, planning and various features are equally important after gaining deep knowledge.
After knowing for what and whom, you will need to make a list of your target market and your target audience and then select the features and functionalities according to it.
Designing and development
Once you have decided on your core features and functionalities to add to your application, it is time to design and develop the social media application.
Before initiating the designing and development process, you need to decide which platform, iOS or Android, you want to develop your social media application.
Later you need to hire a software developer or a social media app development company that has the knowledge, expertise, and experience in developing a full-fledged social media app.
Testing and fixing
After the development of every application, testing is a crucial thing to do. Following a frequent testing cycle after the development of every feature is a must.
By testing, you can quickly solve and fix the bug by making your application smooth and eye-catching by fixing glitches and errors, the quality of the application will be enhanced.
Build your community
It is challenging for a social media app to be successful and reach more customers as it will be new, so you need to make an effective marketing strategy and display the advantages of using your application. You can also show them how the users will benefit from using the application.
How much does Social Media App Development Cost?
Social media app development cost is never fixed as it keeps on varying based on various factors. There is no exact rate to develop a social media application. Several factors are responsible for the cost of developing social media applications, such:
- Type of app you choose
- Platform you choose
- Features and functionalities you add
- The complexity of the app
- Technology stack
- UI/UX design of the app
- Team of developers involved
All the factors mentioned above can affect social networking app development costs. You can hire a professional company to know the accurate cost of developing the app.
Conclusion
It might be challenging to develop a social media app for some reasons. The social media app market has been taken over by huge applications such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and many more.
To make the application popular, you need to have an audience, which means that you will need to invest a large number of resources in researching the needs of your users and developing a strategy to appeal to them to arouse their activity on your platform.
