How to Build a Social Media App on iOS

TECSYNT Read the full text of “How to Build a Social Media Application on iOS” on our blog

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Our social tools are not an improvement to modern society, they

are a challenge to it.

Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations

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Why do you need the social media app?

Social Media apps are making history right now, they’re giving an opportunity to make a great business idea for a startup come true!

◉ Create your app from scratch or◉ make money through advertising via already existing social media

apps

Such apps became a strong business platform that allows the entrepreneur to connect with the users and understand their preferences.

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Number of mobile-only active Facebook users

Diagram by http://statista.com

12 Tips to Create Social Media AppYou’re going to follow some specific basics

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Tip #1. Research the Market

Study the apps of your competitors to explore their advantages and weaknesses.

Find out as more as you can about their users, what they do or don’t like in that apps and what you can provide them instead.

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Define your target audience by age, demographics, locations

etc.

Get the clear understanding of their needs to make an accurate app’s project estimate.

Tip #2. Define your target audience

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Decide whether you need a type of localization or

multi-language support option?

This strictly depends on your target customers. English is a globally spoken language, so for your first startup you can actually hold on to this.

Tip #3. Localization and multi-language support option

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Apple gadgets users are the majority in Northern America, Western Europe and Oceania, while the Android preferred by the rest of the world.

As for the development costs, to develop an app for Android usually takes more time and money along with the challenging requirements in the process.

And iOS app developers charge more, but the project will be finished faster and without any hassle involved.

Tip #4. Choose the Platform

Native

Hybrid

What app do you want?

◉ Enterprise social app◉ App for teens and college students◉ Dating app◉ Social media app for those who are seeking jobs◉ Your idea:)

Well, it can be anything from a small app for the close friends to a worldwide used social media hero like Twitter or Tumblr.

Tip #5. Define the type of the app you want to build

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Mobile audience reach of leading apps in the USA in 2016

Diagram by http://statista.com

Look at social media apps in this graph

Write down all the key features you plan to have in your app and

what services you gonna provide for users.

And come up with the catchy name for your app along with the bright and memorable icon. Will you create just a messaging app or a video chat app? Or it will be an Instagram clone, who knows.

Tip #6. App’s features and services

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Let the professionals take it from here. They will configure your app, exercise all the necessary files and test the app to find the bugs and fix them.

Tip #7 Pass your project to a trustworthy development company

Need a prompt response? Shoot us a messagehello@tecsynt.com

TECSYNTMobile Development Company

We strongly recommend starting only with an MVP (minimum viable product) to save your time, money and efforts spent on the whole ready app that no one wants or cares about.

Only when you’ll see the first feedbacks regarding your product you can plan the further strategy – whether you need some improvements or the whole concept changings.

Tip #8. Prototype & MVP & Launch

Prototype the key features

Prepare the MVP of your app

Launch and promote it1 2 3

Gain your numbers of users by interacting with them and make them sure you hear them.

Show them that you’re trying to build a product that will satisfy their needs and that you’re interested in your user’s opinion.

Constantly promote your app and maintain the Marketing Campaign.

Tip #9. Listen to your users

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You need those to gather an important data – to see how exactly people are using your product, how much time do they spend on it and why are they uninstalling the app if so.

To find out more about such tools you can read the post ‘The 5 Most Popular Mobile App Analytics Tools’.

Tip #10. Include the analytical tools in your social media app

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Stick to the metrics that grant tracking engagement and help to make valuable business solutions.

There are a wide range of such metrics: acquisition, user activation, user retention and churn rate, user engagement, traction metrics and burn rate.

Without a proper revenue model your product will suffer greatly.

To find out more about such tools read ‘7 Mobile Marketing Metrics: What To Choose’

Tip #11. Choose the right metrics to monitor your app success

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“

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.What happens on Twitter stay on Google forever!

Jure Klepic

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Let your users know that you’re gonna protect them from the data theft and unpleasant account break-ins.

They need to be sure that they safe within your app, only then they will stay with you and recommend your product to their close ones.

And also don’t forget about the app submission guidelines you need to explore.

Learn more about mobile app security in our articles ‘Mobile Application Security

Checklist’ and ‘OWASP Mobile Security: Top 10 Risks for 2017’

Tip #12. Develop a Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

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Must-have features of a Social Media App on iOSThe list of the features that we suggest you should consider having in your app

Social media app must consist the following components:

◉ Attractive and suitable UI/UX design

◉ User Registration and total Data

Protection

◉ Customized Profiles

◉ Adding friends & Advanced Search

Options

◉ Account management & Admin panel

◉ Video or Voice Calls

◉ Video Chats & Group calls

◉ Groups of interests

◉ Indicator for the online presence of other

users & The ability to view their profiles

◉ Social Logins (via Facebook or Google+ )

& Social Integration with media resources

◉ In-app encrypted private messaging,

photo and video & Anonymous

messaging

◉ Delivery and reading confirmations &

Self-destructing messages

◉ Media Content sharing option & Instant

share to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr etc. &

Commenting

◉ Event management and calendar

synchronization

Social media app must consist the following components:

◉ Support for various data formats (text,

video, audio, pictures, photos, stickers

etc.)

◉ The ability to post pictures and

videos/music on user’s profile grid◉ Upload Option to take Images or videos

from one’s phone

◉ Visual editor & Photo filters & Creative

text and drawing tools

◉ Recommendations & Exploration of

photos and videos

◉ Interactive news & Content feed

◉ Search filters (location, sex, interests,

jobs, etc..

◉ Geolocation & Geofilters &

Location-based contacts

◉ Seamless Interaction With Other Apps

◉ Payment System & Monetization options

◉ End-to-end conversation encryption &

Encrypted chats

◉ Cloud services synchronization

◉ Server backend (REST API) & Offline

backup

◉ PUSH- and in-app notifications

Most popular mobile social apps in the USA in 2016

Diagram by http://statista.com

“

Social media is not a media. The key is to listen, engage, and build relationships.

David Alston

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How Much Does It Cost To Build a Social Media Application on iOS?The cost will depend on the development company you hire, a complexity of the project and the desired features

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Steps of social media app development

1. Development of strategy2. Design stage (sketching, wireframing, prototyping, design app

skins)3. Development & QA4. Launching & Marketing5. Post-launch support

Social media app development requires three wheels: mobile client, backend and database. And most of the time and cost will be distributed on the backend connection.

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Social app development team

To implement each feature, backend and frontend coding, you gonna need a dedicated team of social media app developers. For example:

◉ iOS Developer◉ UX Designer◉ UI Designer◉ Project Manager◉ Q&A engineer◉ Front-end & Back-end developers

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Cost estimation of the top social networks

◉ Twitter-like app: $50,000 to $250,000

◉ Instagram clone: $100,000 to $300,000

◉ WhatsApp: $125.000 to $150.000

◉ Pinterest: around $120,000

◉ Vine: $125,000 and $175,000

◉ Snapchat: $75,000 – $150,000

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Cost estimation of development

According to our experience, app delivery time takes about 3-6 months (1800-2500 hours) and the total price of app “from a scratch” can be estimated between $75,000 – $280,000 (at 40$/hour).

Plus, you should keep in mind some extra money for post-launch tech support and promotion campaign (read more in "How To Start Mobile App Marketing Campaign").

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hello@tecsynt.com

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You can read the full text of “How to Build a Social Media Application on iOS” on our blog