How to build a disruptive Social Media app
                     HOW TO BUILD A 
DISRUPTIVE 
SOCIAL MEDIA 
APP?
HTTP://WWW.HALKWINDS.COM/
When it comes to exposure and sustainability, 
nothing beats social media in the application game. 
A quick glance at market research will tell you that 
the big players and their all rounder products have 
saturated the market. A wild-card with potential can 
always disrupt this industry.
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Snapchat is the best example for one of those disrupting 
applications that is constantly bothered by big players but it 
refuses to give in. It leverages AI, AR, and community driven 
design trends to provide unique experiences in the palm of 
our hands.
There are two ways you can approach your social media app 
development project. You can either go for a performant and 
exclusive native build or you can go for a one-size-fits-all 
hybrid application, compatible with both iOS and Android.
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WHERE TO START WHEN BUILDING A SOCIAL 
MEDIA APP?
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First of all you need to decide what kind of app you’re looking 
at and how you want to get there. This phase is the 
exploration phase which helps you determine your target 
demographic, your expectations, scope, and processes.
You can build one of it’s kind category-defining social media 
app or you can follow in the footsteps of the apps that fall in 
these popular categories:
 Chat messengers
 Inspirational and utility apps
 Communication, networking and entertainment
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NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT FEATURES
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After using and studying every other social media 
app in the market you’d know that it must have 
signup, user profile, search, news feed, chats, media 
files sharing, push notifications, et al. What they 
won’t tell you is, how to get there. Let’s dive in.
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User Engagement :
Social media industry is already a tough spot to break into 
with some apps morphing into necessities from 
entertainment. Getting user attention might be tough 
because no one knows you yet and that won’t be the same 
as you start pumping money in your marketing. One thing 
you need to keep in mind is that you can’t ignore the big 
players in the industries. Treat them as your allies and give 
users an easy way to get onboard via 
Facebook/Google/Twitter SSO.
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Customization :
If you’ve been a Medium reader or writer you’d be familiar 
with their popular publications and how they’ve 
established their brand image via nifty customizations. 
Medium knows how freedom of customization aids in 
retention and eventually loyalty. Give your user that 
freedom. But don’t go overboard. You know your frontend 
and backend, your user doesn’t.
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Communities :
Use AI to get to know your users better than they know 
themselves and give them what they need right in front of 
their eyes without having to say or type. Create close 
communities and channels around these interests to help 
people socialize.
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In App Chat :
It’s quite simple. If you don’t give them an easy way to 
control their conversations inside your app they will find 
million other niche apps to do so. Messengers are not that 
simple anymore. Your messaging app should have group 
chats, direct messages, disappearing messages, rich media 
support, filters, user restriction, and recalling or deleting 
chats to qualify as an alternative.
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BUILDING A SOCIAL MEDIA APP
Having decided 
what 
functionality 
and features to 
build. You are 
good to go with 
the 
development of 
your own 
industry 
disruptor.
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Scoping :
In this stage you’ll discuss processes and Methodology 
selection, deadlines determination, and the creation of user 
stories.
Wireframing :
This is the phase where all the experimentation happens and 
unicorns emerge from. Here’s what all goes in wireframing.
 UI/UX projection
 Feature mapping across the app
 Interaction planning
 Logic definition
 Creating an experience focused app architecture
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Design
You can partner with relevant brands and plug products in 
between plays for brand exposure. You can also have a 
dedicated section assigned to the brands to advertise on 
your app or website via banners.
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Participation Fee
Now that we have a scaffolding with the information 
architecture and tried & tested user flows, we can start to 
put appeal into it via design. Our process ensures that the 
latest trends and best practices are put to good use.
The finalized designs are put to test via prototypes which 
provide insight in app logic and usability. Prototyping also 
proves to be a faster and efficient way to iterate before 
everything is recreated in implementation via code.
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Development
Your scope decides what kind of development methodology would be 
appropriate for your project. You can either have them(Design and 
Development) work alongside or wait design to finish for 
implementation. It also depends on your engagement model or what 
type of teams you have.
Here’s how a common development phase looks Feature 
development>>Backend infrastructure>>Deploying APIs & Database
From here on we move to testing the implementation and see if 
anything needs consolidation.
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QA/Testing
You will need to set up a test environment so that testing 
and fixing doesn’t mess with the live code. As there are a 
tonne of features that need testing, both modes(manual 
and automated) of testing are employed. For which you 
have several CI/CD tools that can make your work easy.
Our testing scope also ensures that the entirety of the 
application is as expected and corresponds to the definition 
of the project.
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Deployment And Maintenance
Ensure that the applications are safe, secure, and on par with App 
Store and Google Play guidelines. Also here’s where you would 
bring your marketing plan in action.
Thinking that deployment wraps up the social media app 
development cycle is wrong on so many levels. Since your app 
relies on engagement and performance metrics that only surface 
post-deployment. Using app analysis and performance metrics you 
can beat the big players in the game. As any other app, the road 
to success is constant change and adaptation as per the user 
trends. Enhancing app’s design and performance for the sake of 
better usability and popularity is a part of that consistent effort.
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TL;DR
Identify the gap in the market
Define your target audience
Define scope
Get realistic estimates
Build all the essential features
Stick to mentioned development best practices
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We have been building social media apps for 
companies looking for user exposure and consistent 
engagement. You can just bring your idea to the 
table and we will walk the talk to help you realize it 
in the best possible way.
Our expert social media app development team 
consists of dedicated designers, engineers, analysts, 
QA specialists, and marketers who will go above and 
beyond to deliver performant and highly customized 
solutions that meet your expectations.
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THANK 
YOU
[email protected]
HTTP://WWW.HALKWINDS.COM/