Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
For years, our social media experiences have been dominated by big tech companies like Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), Google (YouTube), Snapchat, TikTok, and X. But a growing number of startups are taking aim at these giants by building new, smaller and often more personal social networking experiences to connect people with friends, interests and tight-knit communities.
If you’re looking for a way to extricate yourself from the grip of traditional social media and big tech products in general, there are a number of interesting alternatives available. Many of them cater to Generation Z and younger, a group that is often more willing to build their social networks in new spaces than people with established networks existing on older platforms.
Here are some of our favorites, all of which are worth downloading.
Retro
Retro He is a Carefully designed photo sharing app Focus on building connections with friends in a more personal format. Created by two former Instagram team members, Nathan Sharp and Ryan Olson, the app offers simple ways to share photos with the important people in your life, as well as others who help you. Reconnect with your own memories. You can select specific photos to highlight each week, dump photos into albums, and find and follow others via search features. You also have your own user profile which includes privacy controls that allow you to choose which of your friends can see more of your photos in the last month.
universe
Are you the creative type who’s tired of the decline of AI on Pinterest? Another application, universecan provide escape. Dubbed a “space for inspiration,” Cosmos lets you search by color, keyword or image to form a profile based on your taste. You can also follow friends and other tastemakers and collaborate with others in groups. Overall, the app is a bit superior to Pinterest, and can also be used to shop for interesting products that match your taste.
Indigo
Are you looking to get rid of X but don’t know which decentralized social network to choose – Mastodon or Bluesky? Indigo The application solves this problem by Offering one application where you can participate in both networks Once. The app offers a unified and authored schedule that allows you to co-deploy both services simultaneously, access custom feeds, and numerous customization tools and configuration settings. The app has some polish, though It was created jointly By Ben McCarthy, who also developed A vague line of apps and morealong with freelance iOS designer Aaron Feig.
Indigo: iOS only
corner
corner She says it best, calling her app “Google Maps but social,” which is an apt description. The company has a growing community of more than 125,000 users who organize their favorite places locally and abroad into lists they can “save” or post for others to discover. With a definite Gen Z vibe, this isn’t just a place to find “good restaurants near me,” but to uncover unique lists, like ones focused on where you can find the best dumplings, exotic nightlife, live jazz venues, dance places that aren’t clubs, independent bookstores, and anything else you want to categorize, organize, and recommend. The app also provides a personalized map where you can view your favorite places, places you want to try, other people’s suggestions, and more. It’s like Google Maps if someone from the year 2026 designed it.
corner: iOS only
divine
If you still miss Vine (Thanks a lot, Twitter), you will like it Download reboot Named divine. Enterprising developer Evan Henshaw-Plath, one of Twitter’s first employees, has imported the Vine archive into his team’s new app, which aims to provide a home for short-form video creators. The app hosts nearly 500,000 videos from nearly 100,000 original Vine creators and allows users to once again create their own six-second videos. Many of Vine’s early creators have returned to the app as well Lily Pons, Jimmy here, Mighty Duckand Jack and Jackamong other things. The project also has financial support from the non-profit foundation owned by Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey. “And other things“, which aims to support open source social projects.
not
Although it is not quite a social network in the sense that it is a platform for direct communication, not It is a useful tool to add to your collection of networking applications. Much like an address book, the app lets you keep track of what people in your network have done — personal, professional, and more — by tracking LinkedIn or X bio changes, posts, posts, and more. Additionally, Mesh provides tools that allow you to connect and reconnect with the rhythm you create, a bit like a personal CRM. acquired By WordPress.com owner Automattic In 2025 (when it was then known as Clay), Mesh plans to offer deeper integrations with Automattic’s Universal messaging app, Whistle – which, by the way, you should download as well.
myth
Book club community app myth It recently got an upgrade that makes it worth another look, even if it’s not your main book tracker. The company is Now offering combined service With a digital reading subscription provider Everand (since both are owned by Scribd), which offers access to 1.5 million eBooks and audiobooks from major publishers and more. Your ratings and reviews are then synced to Fable, where you can also see others’ recommendations and join virtual book clubs. Goodreads Who?
To be fair, there are so many book trackers you can choose from these days, which makes it difficult to narrow things down. I personally enjoy it too Bookshelf, Reading journey (which contains the large widget), Footnotes, TBRand PageBoundBut there is more! We really have a wide range of options in this area, so why not just download them all?
locket
locket is one of the pioneers of the idea of putting your friends directly on your iPhone’s home screen. The social app offers a live widget that updates when your friends upload new photos or messages, which you can reply to through a lightweight chat option. You can also participate in weekly photo dumps, Follow your favorite artistsAnd more.
AirPods headphones
Apple and Spotify have never properly created music-centric social networks, however AirPods headphones It seems he did. The application is A social network where you can share what you broadcast with your friends, and then builds on that functionality to offer a host of other features. You can interact with your friends’ music selections using emojis, stickers or selfies, play clips of your friends’ recently streamed songs, send messages to friends, build your profile with favorite bands, participate in music-related activities like music quizzes, improve your musical style, or discover a friend with matching music taste, to name a few.
The mall
Newly launched app The mall It turns online shopping into a social experience. The app offers a comprehensive feed to follow updates and new releases from your favorite brands, especially fashion – although you can add other brands that have an online e-commerce storefront. Additionally, you can visit friends’ profiles to see what kind of items are in their collections and mall and get inspiration and recommendations on other brands you might like, based on your own tastes and style.
Mall: iOS (waiting list)
Shelf
Shelf The basic idea is to offer you a way to organize your tastes – that is, the music, movies, TV shows, books and other things that interest you. By doing this, Shelf allows you to learn more about yourself, get personalized summaries, delve into trend details, and more. But there’s a social element at play here too, because you can browse friends’ shelves as sources of discovery and inspiration. Additionally, unlike a lot of traditional social media, Shelf is private by default because it’s not about gaining influence; It’s about keeping your life history, your private digital interests, and your friends’ lives private.
Shelf: iOS
When you make a purchase through the links in our articles, We may earn a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
