What is the Hive Social app? All about the Twitter alternative as memes take over social media

Hive Social might just be on its way to becoming the new Twitter, based on the exodus that's currently happening across the platform.

The app is gaining prominence after Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, his consequent firing of half the employees, and the resignation of another chunk of staff, have left people wondering whether it's time to abandon ship.

Hive Social was launched in October 2019. It has been described as a mix of Twitter, Instagram, and a hint of Tumblr, with MySpace and old-school Facebook thrown in for good measure.

Hive Social is a mobile-only app and has no browser version yet (Image via hivesocial.app).

The app is available to download on the App Store or Play Store.

While people aren't leaving Twitter entirely, many are creating accounts on Hive Social in case major technical issues and content moderation problems crop up on Twitter due to staff shortages.

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Hive Social is run by two people

Launched in October 2019, the website elaborates that the app was created as a passion project for founder Raluca, who was tired of restrictions and algorithms on other social platforms. The website says:

"Raluca was tired of the restrictions she faced on social platforms in which her posts were not seen by many friends and felt the pressures of complicated algorithms. With the frustration of other social media content creators, Raluca begins Hive as a passion project in her bedroom and self-taught herself how to code."

Anticipating Twitter's collapse, Hive Social has emerged as the new social networking platform of choice, alongside competitors such as Mastodon, Cohost, and Tumblr. According to a tweet by the platform, the app gained 250,000 new users overnight as of Tuesday, November 22, 2022.

Hive's main profile page looks a lot like Twitter, and users can 'tweet' without any character limits.

The social networking platform comes with a Discover page to see trending content. Similar to Instagram, users can find featured content and trending hashtags and follow users based on their own interests. The difference is that there are no algorithms pushing content on users.

It also includes basic features such as reposts, shares, replies to posts, and gif uploads.

The biggest positive, according to users, is that the app comes with an edit function for all posts. There are also no advertisements at the moment.

Unlike Twitter's vague guidelines, the app makes it clear that it does not bar NSFW content as long as it is tagged correctly in order to prevent minors from accessing it. It also expressly states that it does not tolerate hate speech.

The app also has a highly customizable profile page. Users can add profile music, zodiac signs, pronouns, an image gallery, and a text post tab to the app's "highly expressive profile page."

Some downsides include the fact that the 'mobile-first' app is presently run by a two-person development team, who might not be able to handle the influx of users, and that there is no option to use the app on a browser so far.

Another major roadblock is that multiple people can share the same handle, which can lead to a huge verification issue and identity theft risk.

Many accounts with the same handle can lead to a major verification issue if more users migrate to the app (Image via Hive Social).

Twitterati have taken this opportunity to do what they do best and create memes about the trending app.

Hive Social reportedly reached number one in the App Store in 2021, predating the current Twitter fiasco. It remains to be seen whether a major shift will happen in the coming few months.