7 significant trends in social networking app development to watch

Social networking app development as Facebook and Twitter become indispensable parts of us. For those expecting a custom site like them, you should consider below trends.

When half of the world are struggling to fight with coronavirus pandemic, talking about social network tends to be a paradox that authorities are trying to keep distant among society. However, if direct communication becomes dangerous, online social networking will be efficient solutions saving people away from stress and boring.

The beginning of the social networking app started with the need of communication against distances. With the innovation of the internet and mobile devices, people could keep in touch with others for both leisure or business purposes much more accessible. However, not any social network app has been developed to serve the masses as Instagram or Facebook does. The part social network app builders follow the particular purpose that it needs an app with limited features. In practice, the numbers of specific social network apps accounted for the majority of the mobile app market.

In fact, the typical social software development company claimed that non-IT enterprises currently demand the app focusing on small groups of audiences, its employees in particular. This type of app expectedly helps the business to improve the effectiveness of internal communication while keeping the security of business information.

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Expected future types of social networking app development

Augmented Reality technology  

The no.1 social network trends to shape the future of mobile app development tends to be Augmented reality, which lies in the border of real-world and virtual experience. In which, it provides users an immersive experience with more real than ever.

Currently, contents made in the 3D form gradually take the place of 2D content across several social media. Take Snapchat as an example; the platform allows users to turn every video into a unique AR game. Users can truly see their practicing magic via their smartphone screens with a friendly interface.

In a Livestream event, applying AR technology provide the real feel of it from home to audiences without actually experiencing it. Besides, for booking and purchasing products, customers could come closer to their orders. For example, if you want to check your booking visually, you can feel every corner of your upcoming room with an AR video provided by your selected hotel.

Analytics Dashboard takes the central consideration

Everyone knows that it is the time of data-driven business, business intelligence, and automation, especially in the social network app. That’s why data tends to be the most valuable assets that an enterprise has recently. Massive amount of data come with both benefit and challenge that your company will get stuck with the overwhelming of the low value of raw data. In which, analytics dashboard visualizes your data, showing you how your platform or account works.

In the context of social media app development, many app builders claim that their clients are currently willing to pay more in the automated analytics dashboard, which provides real-time reports and KPIs.

Commonly, enterprises focus on tracking four key metrics:  

1. Amplification: expressing the numbers of likes, views, reach.
2. Engagement: measuring how audiences react with content, usually including share volume across channels.
3. CTR (click-through-rate) indicating the quality of reaction, commonly expressed by CTR and Bounce rate.
4. Paid metrics: reporting how promotion campaign work in numbers.

Gamification in social networking app development  

Definitely, most audiences, especially the young generation, are attracted by gaming in several types. It can be seen in typical social media platforms that companies have developed at least a separate section to allow users to play games. Take Facebook as an example; its gaming store can be played right on a private Facebook page.

Historical data claimed that gamification is the most appropriate way to collect users’ engagement, which tends to be one of the most crucial goals of a social networking app. Additionally, not only social network trends, gamification has proved its position in mobile app development trends. It expectedly reduces the acquisition cost of acquiring new users and retain current users. According to M2research, adding games to mobile apps leads to roundly 150% higher in engagement.

With LinkedIn, the leading professional and career network, it takes users into a competition that it marks a user’s profile with a score. In which, users could raise their score by complete all remaining steps, adding details to their profile.   

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Social networking app development as a commercial platform  

When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg expressed his ambition of transforming Facebook to be a giant e-commerce platform, businesses worldwide more focusing on how to take advantage of social networking apps to selling products. For most social networking app users, purchasing in social media site come with convenience and time-saving.   

Additionally, the trend of Social networking app as a commercial platform considerably supports the form of person-to-person business and mobile payment. In which, this type of business brings extra income to users, who expect to build their independent career with a small investment.   

Artificial Intelligence in social content  

When cyber-attack tends to be a silent murderer killing several social network app development companies, applying AI and Machine learning could be an efficient solution in eliminating identity fraud and malicious links.

Additionally, AI authorism could help to prevent information leak in social networking sites. For handling a massive amount of data, Machine learning would be more suitable against data leakage. In practice, to adopt the current regulation of reducing data breaches on the internet, social networking business commonly requires adding AI and ML as a typical feature of the mobile app.

Edge of a short video and short shelf-life content

The rise of TikTok as a giant social network for sharing short video has proved the powers of video content in modern society. With over 1.3 billion users across the world, Tiktok really builds its legend in the social media market.

On the other hand, the concept of the short video is seemingly not enough when it comes to social network trends. Self-destructing videos currently take the spotlight that those posts commonly available on social media platforms in an only selected period. It expected to protect users’ privacy, which raises the debate regarding the safety of social media globally. By somehow, Self-destructing content adds more credit to reassure users.

Chatbot and social messaging app 

As mention above, automation is the future of mobile app development that messaging in social networking app is not an exception. The trends came from the fact that users need instant response when using social messaging. Roundly 31% of respondents of a survey regarding social network apps confirmed that they appreciated meaningful message reply in 30 minutes.  

Interestingly, messaging apps like WhatsApp, Viber, and Facebook Messengers got more users than the social networking app. Expressly, Whatapps deliver an average of 55 billion messages daily, containing a massive amount of valuable information. Definitely, laws and regulations against businesses approach private messages. However, holding the enormous data in hand refers to bring extreme advantage to app owners.

Besides the giant messaging platform, the demand for custom messaging app development is predicted as an outstanding social media app development. In which, those apps will target a narrow group of users, who follow a specific purpose instead of regular communication. Additionally, for instant response, the chatbot would be the core technology to speed up automation among the social messaging sector.