The significance of the Social Networking App can be gauged from the fact that an estimated one-third of the world population shall expectedly comprise active users of social networking by the year 2021. Apart from the popular social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc., people also use other platforms based on their needs and requirements.
For new social interactions, there is a need to acquaint one about the technology stacks on which social networks depend. The know-how about app features must primarily aim at best user experience, laden with core features.
The primary three ingredients of any social, mobile app technology stack are client, backend, and database. Those defining an app, to be a social network, profile, feeds, and connections.
Table of Contents
Profiles
The core activity on a social network app development company from a developer is creating a user’s profile by new users. Developers see it as a database with personal details, and users see it as their profile on a social media platform.
There are two ways to create a profile. One is, connecting an app to the social network(s) that a user uses already. Secondly, the user can sign up with an email ID and a password, but this route is a cumbersome and mostly avoided by users.
“Social media is not a media. The key is to listen, engage, and build relationships.” – David Alston
The most preferred reason for creating a profile is an expression of uniqueness and personalization, which requires some tools. The various methods of personalizing profiles by the app users are:
A) Photo effects
You can enhance the profile picture features by adding effects by the users, as an expression.
B) Background Colours
Users can customize the color and style patterns.
C) Customizable bios
The profiles can be personalized by customizing these in a manner best suited to a user to express and depict their individuality.
D) Links
The users’ other social networks can also be linked, such as websites, blogs, etc.
User Profiles are one thing, but social networks are a different thing altogether, which users use as per their preferences. For instance, various social media networks are designed for specific requirements, i.e., Youtube, Instagram, Flickr, etc., have particular functions.
Feed
The content that a social media app user shares in photos, presentations, videos, audio, stories, and uploaded by a user constitutes feed. It makes social networks engaging. It motivates people to use a social network app. The users’ various contents are location specific that are implemented by API location retrieved from GPS and mobile network providers.
Then, status updates are simplified by social apps by providing tools that make user-generated content seem unique and simplification of the content sharing process to target a specific audience.
Then, some incentives in the form of vouchers are provided by the app for the users’ specific activities to retain them. It also helps increase social media apps connections through interactions, such as shares, comments, likes, etc.
Connections
Connections are a means of mutual interaction amongst users of a social network for building relationships. The users need to be given feeds following the nature of the users. Some users like to discover content and must be given a wide range of content, including friends. Then those users, on say, Facebook, who like most everything that comes across. So, favoriting others’ content shall enhance the post value and the user’s desire to connect with the author of the post. Some users search specific content and must be fed hashtag feeds to increase user following.
Anonymous social network apps are on the rise for their ability to conceal a user’s identities, especially when interacting in public groups. Nowadays, social networks permit users in the creation of close friend lists to see shared content.
One can send event notifications by developing an event-based app that can also be a revenue source for a social app.
The connections also used to be mined in the social networking app, though with user permission to retrieve friend lists. Still, now, the invitations can only be sent to the acquaintances to connect on Facebook. Likewise, a page can be created for the app on Facebook to invite people to download the app.
An app lets users send invitations to friends by connecting to an email client, including a template with text. You can also do it by sending a message (SMS) from the user’s address book, inviting you to download it.
With the addition of filters, such as location, gender, interests, jobs, etc., also lets users search for people on social apps.
Lastly, the app can suggest new connections to the users by carefully analyzing users’ preferences to provide a good user experience.
Multi-language support
The multi-lingual function of app features is apt from its global acceptance and viability for the users. Experts say that around half of Facebook’s global users do not select English as their language in settings. Similarly, for Twitter, almost half the global users did not use English as the preferred language.
Messaging
Apart from social network interactions, messaging, chats, voice, and video messaging, they have acquired real-time functionality that the apps need to provide to be thoroughly rewarding. This aspect is equally essential from social networking app development projects, and there is no need to build a messenger for this. There are third-party services that provide this functionality.
Value Addition Content
A social app development must also include a value-added content that enriches profiles and provides enhanced functionality with advertising possibilities. The various content providers, such as artists, game developers, etc., may help in this by entering into partnerships for an android app development company.
Backend
Backend development needs to be performance requirements. Depending upon the load-bearing capacity, an app features can maintain, the system infrastructure should be developed in real-time considerations for better results.
Database
There are various options for databases that you can choose from, such as SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc. Amongst these, MySQL or PostgreSQL could be preferably used for any social networking app.
Admin Panel
The admin panel allows the user to clarify the queries or doubts about the app technology stack. The users can directly address the project admin by raising a question or a query for help. which the admin panel lets app owners to view all queries and sends responses to the user in real-time.
The admin panel also provides entity management in addition to user management features to provide control over user-generated content.
Conclusion
The significant inputs provided constitute knowledge about human behavior and related statistics responsible for the majority of revenue generation by leading social media developers, such as Facebook.
The best practice is, to begin with, reasonable goals and gradually build-up.
