Social Media Application Development: Types, Features & Cost. Our lives have become increasingly reliant on social media platforms. It is rare to find someone without a social media account. Some popular social media platforms are Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Threads and Twitter etc.
These platforms have changed how we communicate, find people with similar interests, create/join networks, raise awareness, and more. While you might be under the illusion that there’s no way a new social media platform can succeed.
But that is not the case. TikTok is one of dozens of social media platforms that have taken over after social media giants such as Facebook and YouTube.
But what does developing a social media app involve, and how much does it cost? To help you out, we will cover every aspect of social media application development.
Social Media Application Development
Social media platforms are software applications that facilitate sharing of information, thoughts, ideas, text, multimedia, etc., through virtual networks.
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According to Grand View Research, the market size of social media apps is expected to grow at a CAGR of 26.2% from 2023 to 2030.
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Another report from Statista suggests that the worldwide social media networking market will grow at a CAGR of 6.86% and reach a whopping $183.10 billion by 2027.
Moreover, there are 4.9 billion social media users, and is projected to reach 5.85 billion by 2027.
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Social media apps originated as a way to interact with family and friends but have expanded to serve different purposes like marketing, building brands, target audience, increasing business visibility, sharing expertise, educating, and more.
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Types of Social Media Application
Social media apps can be divided into the following categories:
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Social Networking
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Video Sharing
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Photo Sharing
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Interactive Media
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Discussion Forum
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Social Audio Platform
Social Networking: ‘Networking’ platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook allow users to interact with each other in different ways.
Video Sharing: Video sharing social media apps like YouTube, TikTok, and Vimeo are used to share videos on thousands of topics and allow users to watch videos in short and long formats.
Photo Sharing: Photo-sharing platforms like Pinterest are used by an audience looking for style, home decor, cooking, or general visual inspiration.
Interactive Media: Apps like Snapchat and TikTok allow users to share videos and photos using hundreds of interactive and experimental features.
Discussion Forum: Platforms like Reddit and Quora are the perfect examples of discussion forums used for asking and answering questions, and forming communities around interesting topics and niches.
Social Audio Platform: Social media apps like Clubhouse, Spotify, and Twitter Spaces, also known as social audio platforms, are used to host industry panels, interactive sessions, live conversations, etc. on interesting topics.
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Features to Integrate into Social Media Application Development
Some of the features that you can add while developing social media apps are:
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Newsfeed
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Search
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Login/Sign Up
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User Account
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Profile
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Push Notifications
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Chat
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Media Sharing
Newsfeed: It helps users stay tuned and updated about the latest shared content like photos, videos, status, etc. Newsfeed is the central space of the social media platform where users can upload, share, and specify the target audience they want to reach. It also becomes the home screen of the social media platform.
Search: This feature will help users to find friends, communities, content, influencers, etc. by entering their usernames, locations, tags, labels, etc.
Login/Sign Up: You should offer multiple options to users for signing up or logging in to your social media platform. Some of the login/sign-up options that can be integrated are social media, mail account, email and password, phone number and password, etc. You should also add the ‘Forget Password’ option to reset the password, in case users don’t remember the right one.
User Account: This feature should allow users to contact other users, view their posts and media files, and follow/subscribe to them.
Profile: It is the feature you should add to the social media app to allow the user to edit their profile or add details about themselves such as username, age, gender, location, video, photos, etc.
Push Notifications: Push notification feature is useful to increase user engagement with the social media app. This feature sends push messages to the user about a new post from their connections or community, a new message, comment, or response on their posts, etc.
Chat: Adding messaging/chat features in the social media app will allow users to send text or multimedia messages with their connection for easier communication.
Media Sharing: Adding a media sharing feature in the network app will enable users to share images, audio, GIFs, videos, etc. with others by accessing their device storage.
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Social Media App Development Cost
Developing a social media app can cost you anywhere from $100,000 to $350,000. The variation in the development cost entirely depends on the features, tech stack (programming languages, databases, APIs, geolocations, storage, search, etc.), frameworks and libraries, UI/UX design, quality assurance, DevOps, the experience of the development team, hourly rates, project management, support, maintenance, etc.
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Providing an accurate cost for social media application development is not possible without knowing your requirements. Therefore, we suggest you get in touch with our experts, share your needs, and choose the feature, tech stack, and the number of developers you will need. Based on what you share with us, our experts will give you a personalized quote.
So what are you waiting for? Contact us now!
FAQs: Social Media Application Development
What is a social media application?
Social media platforms are software applications that facilitate sharing of information, thoughts, ideas, text, multimedia, etc., through virtual networks.
What are the steps to create social media applications?
To create social media apps you need to choose the type of social media app you want to build, find the targeted audience, opt for the right revenue model, come up with unique selling points (USPs), decide its features, hire developers, choose tech stack, and promote the app.
What are the types of social media apps?
Social networking, Video Sharing, Photo Sharing, Interactive Media, Discussion Forums, and Audio Sharing platforms are the major types of social media apps that you will come across.