Like it or not, social media is essential in today’s society. While it can have its cons, the pros certainly outweigh them. Along with staying connected with family and friends, social media is a great way to meet new people and stay up-to-date on topics of interest. Further, if you have a business or service to offer, it’s one of the most effective marketing methods.
Unfortunately, there are so many social sites and apps available now that it’s impossible to keep up with them all; you’ll need to pick the ones that are best for your needs and go from there. To help you with that, we’ve created an intriguing list of social apps to try on your favorite Android device.
MeWe
This social app will pique your interest if you’re looking for something similar to Facebook minus the vast number of ads and spyware. MeWe is free and refers to itself as an uplifting next-gen social network. It’s significantly privacy-focused, allowing you to control who can view and interact with you and your posts. Plus, they vow never to share or sell your personal information, which you can read more about via the Privacy Bill of Rights link on your profile page.
MeWe has all the essential social features: home feed, groups, pages, stories, private messaging, and content discovery based on interests. If you want to make this your permanent social home, you’ll benefit from the MeWe Premium monthly subscription. With this, you get unlimited custom emojis and stickers, unlimited voice and video calling, video journals, 100GB of MeWe cloud storage, unlimited custom themes, scheduled posts, and a premium profile badge.
Nextdoor
Gone are the days when you have to walk over to your neighbors’ houses to introduce yourself. Now, you can connect with them online using a neighborhood network app like Nextdoor. In addition to connecting with neighbors, you can keep up with local news and events, welcome new neighbors to the area, help a lost pet find its owner, and give away or sell items you no longer use. It’s also a terrific way to get your neighbors’ opinions (via the poll option), find others who share your interests (via groups), and plan neighborhood events.
Nextdoor works well as a digital neighborhood watch system. You and your neighbors can report incidents, such as a crime or something suspicious, so others are aware and can take precautions. The app is ad-supported, and you’ll see a mix of sponsored posts within your feed. You can also create a business page if you have one, which is an excellent way to gain more customers.
Boost
Reddit is one of the most popular online communities for connecting with others who share your interests; however, the official Android app leaves much to be desired. Boost is one of the most popular alternatives to the official Reddit app due to its modern and customizable UI, handy content filters, home screen widgets, themes, and many additional features. It’s free and ad-supported, but you can pay a small one-time fee to remove them.
There are eight post view types for the front page, categories, and subreddits; each has its benefits, making them all worth checking out. Although the number of options available in settings can be overwhelming, you’ll want to take some time to review them to make the app your own. For instance, under content filters, you can choose to hide posts by specified subreddits, domains, users, keywords, and flairs. In addition, there’s a convenient option to blur NSFW images instead of hiding them altogether.
Meetup
No matter how many social networks you join, connecting online just isn’t the same as connecting in person. With Meetup, you can search for groups and online or in-person events based on your interests and location. Whatever your preference, it’s a helpful way to connect with like-minded individuals to help grow your personal or professional network. There’s also an in-app messaging system for communicating and coordinating with other members.
Depending on where you live, it may be tough to find something local. Luckily, Meetup provides the means to plan and host your own meetups. However, doing so isn’t free; you’ll need to purchase an organizer subscription. There are two plans for those wanting to create their own groups and events: Standard and Pro. Both are ad-supported and include helpful event hosting tools, but the Standard plan is limited to three groups, while Pro allows an unlimited number of groups.
Fenix 2
Many Twitter users aren’t fans of the official Android app due to its lack of features and poor functionality. Thankfully, there are several third-party alternatives that won’t disappoint, and Fenix 2 is one of them. It offers many features, including its beneficial “undo send” popup. Once enabled, you can choose an undo interval (up to 20 seconds) which gives you a little time to review and edit your tweet before it posts.
Its home page is customizable thanks to the multiple types of columns you can add, like custom search, list, interactions, favorites, trends, and bookmarks. This makes it easy to switch back and forth between your favorite topics and information. You can even enable post notifications for each column. In addition, there are multiple themes available, and you can tweak the UI to suit your preference. The app is ad-free; however, there’s a one-time fee of $4.99, although you can often find it on sale.
Minds
Like MeWe, this ad-free social network focuses on privacy and Internet freedom. It’s open-source and has features similar to Facebook and Twitter, like stories (called moments) and retweets (called reminds). Upon joining, you’ll set up your channel and can monetize it by upgrading to Minds+ (monthly or annual subscription) or creating membership tiers. Additionally, you can earn tokens for specific activities like posting content and referring friends. Tokens earned can be used to promote your content or tip other creators.
The Discovery tab lets you see the top posts and creators. When posting content, there’s a built-in scheduling feature, tags (you can add up to five), an option to cross-post to Permaweb (a global, community-owned decentralized network), and the ability to choose a license for your content. While there is a chat feature, it’s not integrated into the Minds app; you’ll need to install the separate Minds Chat app to use it.
Quora
The wealth of information in this well-known question-and-answer app is invaluable. It isn’t just a place to find information; it’s also great for sharing your knowledge with others and establishing yourself as a subject matter expert. Other users can read, vote on, and respond to your answers. Once you grow your following, you can even receive requests from your followers to answer their questions. Not only can you follow people on Quora, but you can also follow topics of interest and get notified when new questions need to be answered.
Quora Spaces is a newer feature where you can join and create collaborative, topic-based communities similar to Facebook Groups. These are great for discussions and debates. Quora is free to use and ad-supported; however, there are some Spaces with premium content (monthly subscriptions). Since you can monetize Spaces, they’re also great for curating and organizing niche content in a blog-like format.
Mastodon
This ad-free, decentralized social network is a viable alternative to Twitter due to its similar design and features. It’s broken up into multiple servers, each with its own rules and moderators. Upon signing up, you’ll be asked to choose one based on your interests or region. You won’t be confined to just that server, though; you’ll still be able to connect with people from all servers once you’ve signed up.
Creating posts and interacting with other users is easy, thanks to Mastodon’s clean, user-friendly interface. Just like Twitter, you can mention other users in your posts, there’s a reblog feature that works the same as retweeting, and you can like posts by clicking the “star” underneath them. In addition, when creating posts, you can add images, polls, emojis, and custom content warnings. Finally, the privacy of your posts can also be changed from public to followers or mentioned only.
What’s your favorite social app?
We’re all familiar with the most popular social apps, but along with being oversaturated, they often aren’t the best options these days. Sure, they’re great for entertainment, and all your friends already use them, but what if you’re looking for something different? Maybe you’d like to connect with your neighbors, start a monthly Star Wars meetup, or prefer a service that respects your privacy. That’s what you’ll find on this list.
Got any additional social apps to add? We’d love to hear about them!
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