It wasn’t long ago when an old school telegram was considered to be the coolest medium of establishing communication to present time when Facebook has almost doubled down its effort on the development of a mind-reading device. Social media has indeed crossed several stages of evolution, and stages that have established it as a platform that is here to stay and grow. One of the major factors behind the unprecedented growth that social media is witnessing both in terms of users and scope of constant growth is the technology used behind it.
The innovation in social media technology has come a long way since Six Degrees, the platform that ruled till 1997 and which in later years gave rise to the new technologies for social media. The foundation stone of social media technology was raised in 1997 with SixDegrees.com, the first social media site.
The platform allowed users to create a profile page, curate a list of connections, and send messages to their network. At one time, the website had over one million users before being sold off for $125 million, and finally meeting a premature demise in 2001 with decline in the domain.
However, there were a few exceptions, at the back of their strong business model ready for growth from day one. Social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat continued to come on top of the social media landscape in terms of user count. In recent times, there were some other key names that joined the social media technology evolution landscape – Grindr, Vero, and Helo amongst others.
How Important is Technology for Social Media?
Technology plays a major role in social media’s evolution. On a more precise level, it started with the inception of mobile apps and the advent of smartphones and laptops. In 2019 alone, according to a report by Lyfe Marketing, over 91% of all social media users logged into their social channels through mobile devices.
Let us find out the list of technologies that are helping social media app developers take the platform to its next evolution set.
Technologies Helping Social Media To Evolve
1. Radio Frequency Identification Tags (RFID)
More commonly known as RFID, it’s a small computer chip that can store information about an individual or object. These chips come with a unique serial number that can be connected to the data stored on the chip. Let us explain the application of this technology through this example: Suppose you are attending a music concert and scanning your RFID device with another RFID device that has social features integrated into it. By simply bringing your RFID device to another similar device, The RFID feature can allow you to like a band on Instagram or Facebook or even download some of your favorite music tracks on your device.
The growing usefulness and popularity of RFID in the event and ecommerce business has led to many social media app development companies to incorporate RFID features into their mobile applications.
2. Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented Reality or AR and mixed reality have become one of the most popular features of social media apps. There are possibly multiple uses of AR by integrating it with the application, but the most prominent and popular use is found in face filters. AR-driven filters first used by Snapchat are useful for both individuals and businesses by helping them to deliver engaging content.
Another important use of AR in social media is seen in the social media advertisements. Snapchat had previously created an AR-based app for Snap Original where the youth icon and rapper popularly known as Bhad Bhabie engaged with the users as if they were doing in reality.
3. Artificial Intelligence
There are many new-age technologies that are hugely impacting the social media sector in recent time, but the one name which will be placed right at the top is Artificial Intelligence or AI.
AI is the quintessential component of every social media platform that is currently active in the market. The technology has become so important that now it’s involved as a default note in the social media development cost.
Facebook used advanced machine learning for a number of applications such as face recognition in posts, targeting users for advertisements and even for improving their search functionality. LinkedIn finds use for AI in offering job recommendations, suggesting people important contacts with whom they should connect, and sending them relevant posts for their feed.
Snapchat has been successfully using the computer vision capability for tracking physical features and overlaying filters that move with them in real-time. These are some good examples that validate the use of AI in the different genres of the social media domain.
4. Blockchain
Decentralization of social media is one of the most important genres of the social media sector. There are many instances of social media and blockchain convergence that businesses from both sides are experimenting with. Here are some examples:
The social media networks usually depend on ad-based business models that has a common problem of creators not getting an equal compensation for their content on the platform. They actually need a professional contract to ensure the creators get the amount that their content deserves without any delay or unreasonable deductions.
Businesses are often forced to combat internet censorship. By adopting distributed ledger, the users can easily read and curate their own content with a guarantee that no authority will be able to block access to content.
5. IoT
Another very useful social media and technology trends is the Internet of Things. It’s a fact that social media depends heavily on technology for monitoring social media and some of the well known brands that use it are N&W, Disney, and Tencent, etc.
Social media app development companies having loT skills are much sought after by businesses because they help them create solutions around real-time monitoring of data and insights emanating from social media.This proves very helpful as it enables them to make better business decisions.
These are essentially five technologies that are taking the social media sector towards a new evolution era – one that will be truly democratic and transparent in nature. Do you wish to be a part of such a revolution?