Start a social network from scratch it is almost as difficult a task as winning the lottery: just look at all the countless attempts made over the past decade and a half and analyze how many of them have reached the top d to count them all in two hands, or maybe a few more pairs if we consider the who have achieved some less devastating success.
Even so, this mountain of difficulties does not seem to scare the entrepreneur Oziel Figueiredo, CEO of the developer PlugApps. Since February, the company has made available for free in the two main app stores in the world, the App Store and Google Play, the Status which, more than an app, has the enormous ambition of becoming an alternative to Instagram by joining the list of major social networks in the world.
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Weapons are not lacking for Status to achieve the goal beyond megalomaniac. First of all, the application is very well developed (it could also, it was more than a year just in the development phase): an unsuspecting user would think that he is dealing with an already experienced social network and with years of road, so polished that they are the different areas of the application. Bugs are basically nonexistent, as well as performance problems (al, Facebook) or crashes very common in apps of this type.
Likewise, the ease of use is commendable: with a tab-based interface and a side menu keeping all of the secondary options, it is possible to easily locate yourself in the environment and, in fairness, a good part of this familiarity can be credited to the fact that Status borrows several design paradigms from the competition, such as postings on cards, the chat button in the upper right corner and the search tab with a feature to explore.
The initial configuration is very simple and right away one of the differentials of the Status before the giants: the possibility for the user to personalize the experience and choose what he wants to see at any time, based on a series of factors. Initially, you choose a color (which will be the predominant one in the interface) and some themes among those that interest you, and the network will immediately set up a feed according to these topics.
From there, you can adjust your experience in the app. You can choose to see posts related to the chosen topics, see only what the people you follow post or filter people in certain locations, viewing their posts; according to the developers, this idea can foster tourism, the approximation of cultures and gives the user the possibility to connect with the place, discovering people and events.
Furthermore, the network brings what is already expected from a major social application in 2018: here we have the possibility to post content in text, image, audio and video, as well as comment on these posts also with multimedia resources; forms of passive interaction (here symbolized by a little star) are also present. We also have an area called "Top Stars", with the most popular users nearby, as well as audio and video connections and a version of Stories, call Moments, with similar operation, instantaneous posts that disappear in 24 hours.
To those who complain about the end of the chronological order in posts on basically every major social network in the world, Status is a glass of water in the desert: all the content posted is displayed in the order in which it was created. Furthermore, at least in my experience, there was no advertising intrusion, which is also a very positive point.
Now, the question that does not want to remain silent: in a general perspective, how does Status do in your proposal? Well, it is difficult to say while people are not there, after all, nothing is more true than the cliché that says "a social network is only as good as the people who are in it".
The application and the network have all the resources and stability necessary to face the giants of the universe in fact, everything so similar that I even wonder if there would be any difference, something that would make people look at the Status and think “about it that I need in my life now ”. Of course, the regionality features are great: I really like the fact that I can, for example, filter the publications and use the app as if it were a social network exclusive to one location (be it where I am or not) . But is that enough?
If people are actually going to adopt the app, this is a mystery that I can't answer; you and your friends, however, are more than invited to try. Who knows if we start from? 😉
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