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Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?

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Re: Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?

#71

Post by swizzle36 »

Many commenters are telling you not to do this, but no one is answering the main question - how to launch such a network. I've actually been thinking about this idea a ton... how could you ever get a niche social media network off the ground when the incumbents are massive?

In any case, I'm working on a small project to support smaller social medias. Not trying to promote too much but it's called Soshials (soshials.com) and is basically like producthunt but for social media platforms. An additional twist is that users can actually join "cohorts" to try the new social media platforms for a month and give feedback.

I think getting feedback from real, initial users (instead of just friends/family) is a real reason why it's hard to iterate on and improve new platforms. Interested to hear if others have similar thoughts on how to actually launch a new social network.

Re: Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?

#72

Post by ensignavenger »

idkwhattocallme wrote: post #26

Apple photos is my privacy first social network. I have "shared albums" with my families, different friend/hobby groups. There is an activity feed so whenever someone shares a photo I get a notification, can like like, comment. It just has the basic features and works really well. Here's the thing, I pay $40 a month for the icloud bundle. So technically they've monetized it already. I've always wondered if others use…

Are you able to share photos with others who don't have iCloud accounts, or do you only associate with fellow Apple users?

Re: Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?

#73

Post by wheelerwj »

I wouldn’t.

If you were really going to approach it, you would launch a privacy focused messaging app, which could add filters and other simple Photo and video editing tools because most people are now sharing in small message groups and not publicly for everyone to see.

Re: Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?

#76

Post by gizmo »

I suspect that the primary challenge social networks face going forward is adversarial AIs. This can take the form of spam bots: astroturfing, trolling, abuse. And of AI spies: bots that programmatically analyze and extract information from users.

I don't know what the next big social network will look like but I think the one key thing you need to solve for is authenticity.

Re: Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?

#77

Post by randomname4325 »

ensignavenger wrote: post #72
idkwhattocallme wrote: post #26

Apple photos is my privacy first social network. I have "shared albums" with my families, different friend/hobby groups. There is an activity feed so whenever someone shares a photo I get a notification, can like like, comment. It just has the basic features and works really well. Here's the thing, I pay $40 a month for the icloud bundle. So technically they've monetized it already. I've always wondered if others use…

Are you able to share photos with others who don't have iCloud accounts, or do you only associate with fellow Apple users?

I do this as well! There is a link that android users can use to view, not sure about upload. My feature wish is that you could associate a shared album with a group message and then it's all I'd ever need. Also not sure you've run into this, but we recently hit the 5K pic shared album limit and had to create a new album.

Re: Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?

#79

Post by digdugdirk »

I've had a similar idea - my thoughts would be to make a distributed p2p social network where data is held on the user's device, and the user could opt-in to selling that data to various sources.

That said, I have no idea how to even vet the feasibility of a network like that, but one can dream.

Re: Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?

#80

Post by TSUTiger »

ensignavenger wrote: post #72
idkwhattocallme wrote: post #26

Apple photos is my privacy first social network. I have "shared albums" with my families, different friend/hobby groups. There is an activity feed so whenever someone shares a photo I get a notification, can like like, comment. It just has the basic features and works really well. Here's the thing, I pay $40 a month for the icloud bundle. So technically they've monetized it already. I've always wondered if others use…

Are you able to share photos with others who don't have iCloud accounts, or do you only associate with fellow Apple users?

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