Beyond Instagram: Introducing the next generation of social apps

1 week ago 14

For years, our societal media experiences person been dominated by Big Tech players similar Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), Google (YouTube), Snapchat, TikTok, and X. But a increasing fig of startups are taking purpose astatine these giants by gathering new, often smaller and much idiosyncratic societal networking experiences to link radical with friends, interests, and tighter-knit communities.

If you’re looking for a mode to extricate yourself from the grip of accepted societal media and Big Tech products successful general, determination are a fig of absorbing alternatives available. Many of them cater to Gen Z and younger, a radical that’s often much consenting to physique their societal networks wrong caller spaces compared to radical with well-established networks that beryllium connected aging platforms.

Below are immoderate of our favorites, each of which are worthy a download.

Retro

Retro is simply a thoughtfully designed photo-sharing app focused connected gathering connections with friends successful a much backstage format. Created by 2 erstwhile Instagram squad members, Nathan Sharp and Ryan Olson, the app offers elemental ways to stock photos with the radical successful your beingness who matter, arsenic good arsenic others that assistance you reconnect with your ain memories. You tin prime definite photos to item each week, dump photos into albums, and find and travel others via hunt features. You besides person your ain idiosyncratic illustration that includes privateness controls that let you to take which of your friends tin spot much than your astir caller month’s worthy of photos.

Retro: iOS/Android

Cosmos

Are you the originative benignant who’s sick of the AI slop connected Pinterest? Another app, Cosmos, could connection an escape. Dubbed a “space for inspiration,” Cosmos allows you to hunt by color, keyword, oregon image, to signifier a illustration based connected your taste. You tin besides travel friends and different tastemakers and collaborate with others connected collections. Overall, the app is simply a spot much elevated than Pinterest, and it tin besides beryllium utilized to store for absorbing products that lucifer your style.

Cosmos: iOS/Android

Indigo

Looking to get disconnected X but don’t cognize which decentralized societal web to take — Mastodon oregon Bluesky? Indigo’s app solves that occupation by offering a azygous app wherever you tin enactment successful some networks astatine once. The app offers a unified timeline and a composer that lets you cross-post to some services astatine once, entree to your customized feeds, and tons of personalization tools and configuration settings. The app has immoderate polish, having been co-created by Ben McCarthy, who besides developed the Obscura enactment of apps and others, alongside freelance iOS decorator Aaron Vegh.

Indigo: iOS only

Corner

Corner says it best, calling its app “Google Maps but social,” which is an apt description. The institution has a increasing assemblage of immoderate 125,000+ users who curate their favourite places some locally and overseas into lists that they tin “gatekeep” oregon marque nationalist for others to discover. With a definite Gen Z vibe, this isn’t conscionable a spot to find “good restaurants adjacent me,” but to uncover unsocial lists, similar those focused connected wherever you tin find the champion dumplings, queer nightlife, unrecorded jazz spots, places to creation that aren’t clubs, indie bookshops, and thing other you privation to categorize, organize, and recommend. The app besides provides a personalized representation wherever you tin presumption your favourite places, those you privation to try, different people’s suggestions, and more. It’s similar Google Maps if idiosyncratic from 2026 designed it.

Corner: iOS only

Divine

If you’re inactive missing Vine (thanks a lot, Twitter), you’ll privation to download the reboot called Divine. Enterprising developer Evan Henshaw-Plath, an aboriginal Twitter employee, imported the Vine archive into his team’s caller app, which aims to connection a location for short-form video creators. The app hosts astir 500,000 videos from astir 100,000 archetypal Vine creators and allows users to marque their ain six-second videos erstwhile again. Several aboriginal Vine creators person returned to the app, arsenic well, like Lele Pons, JimmyHere, MightyDuck, and Jack and Jack, among others. The task besides has fiscal backing from Twitter co-founder and erstwhile CEO Jack Dorsey’s nonprofit, “and Other Stuff,” which aims to backmost unfastened root societal projects.

Divine: iOS/Android/Web

Mesh

While not precisely a societal web successful the consciousness that it’s a level for connecting directly, Mesh is simply a adjuvant instrumentality to propulsion into your lineup of networking apps. The app is thing similar an code publication connected steroids, arsenic it lets you way what radical successful your web — personal, professional, and different — person been up to, by tracking LinkedIn oregon X bio changes, posts, publications, and more. Plus, Mesh provides tools allowing you to scope retired and reconnect connected a cadence you configure, somewhat similar a idiosyncratic CRM. Acquired by WordPress.com proprietor Automattic successful 2025 (when it was past known arsenic Clay), Mesh plans to connection deeper integrations with Automattic’s universal messaging app, Beeper — which, by the way, you should download too.

Mesh: iOS/Desktop/Web

Fable

Book nine assemblage app Fable precocious got an upgrade that makes it worthy different look, adjacent if it’s not your main publication tracker. The institution is now offering a bundled service with integer speechmaking subscription supplier Everand (as they’re some owned by Scribd), which offers entree to 1.5 cardinal ebooks and audiobooks from the large publishers and more. Your ratings and reviews past sync implicit to Fable, wherever you tin besides spot the recommendations from others and articulation virtual publication clubs. Goodreads who?

To beryllium fair, determination are truthful galore publication trackers to take from these days that it’s hard to constrictive things down. I personally besides bask Bookshelf, Reading Journey (which has a large widget), Margins, TBR, and PageBound, but determination are adjacent more! We genuinely person a wealthiness of choices successful this space, truthful wherefore not conscionable download them all?

Fable: iOS/Android

Locket

Locket is 1 of the pioneers of the thought to enactment your friends straight connected your iPhone’s Home Screen. The societal app offers a unrecorded widget that updates arsenic your friends upload caller photos oregon messages, which you tin respond to done a lightweight chat option. You tin besides prosecute successful play photograph dumps, follow your favourite artists, and more.

Locket: iOS/Android

Airbuds

Apple and Spotify ne'er got societal networks built astir euphony right, but Airbuds seems to person done it. The app is simply a social web wherever you stock what you’re streaming with your friends, past builds connected apical of that functionality to connection a scope of different features. You tin respond to your friends’ euphony choices with emojis, stickers, oregon selfies, play clips of your friends’ precocious streamed songs, connection friends, configure your illustration with favourite bands, oregon prosecute successful music-related activities similar euphony quizzes, getting your euphony benignant roasted, oregon uncovering retired which person has matching philharmonic taste, to sanction a few.

Airbuds: iOS/Android

The Mall

Newly launched app The Mall turns online buying into a societal experience. The app offers a cosmopolitan provender for pursuing updates and caller releases from your favourite brands, mostly manner — though you tin adhd others that person an online e-commerce storefront. Plus, you tin sojourn friends’ profiles to spot what benignant of items are successful their collections and “mall” and get inspiration and recommendations of different brands you mightiness like, based connected your tastes and style.

The Mall: iOS (waitlist)

Shelf

Shelf’s cardinal thought is to connection you a mode to signifier your sensation — meaning the music, movies, TV shows, books, and different things you’re into. By doing so, Shelf lets you larn much astir yourself, get personalized recaps, dive into inclination breakdowns, and more. But a societal constituent comes into play here, too, due to the fact that you tin browse friends’ shelves arsenic sources of find and inspiration. Plus, dissimilar overmuch of accepted societal media, Shelf is backstage by default due to the fact that it’s not astir gaining clout; it’s astir keeping a past of your ain integer beingness and interests, and that of your friends.

Shelf: iOS

When you acquisition done links successful our articles, we whitethorn gain a tiny commission. This doesn’t impact our editorial independence.

Read Entire Article