What’s the biggest take-away from a decade of social media experience? That slow-and-steady wins. However, the social media apps of today need to be no less than fast-and-the-furious. At least that’s what turned out to be the biggest lesson of the year 2015. And if the 2016 predictions are any indication, social media apps have to be smarter, faster and more convenient than any other apps.

Let’s have a look at what the social media world is predicting for 2016:

1. Serve live to stay alive: Thanks to the trend started by Twitter-acquired Periscope, live video broadcasts are making uploading an old video look boring. Social media apps that instantly allow the real time or “in-the-moment” features will have a major share of the content roost in 2016.
Why this will stay: Social media became the king of content due to the very fact that it allowed instant sharing of emotions and pictures with the rest of the world. Imagine how exciting the live video or live event updates sharing is for the entire social media population that’s already addicted to live updates.

2. Social commerce: If you have noticed how social media ads in your apps have been transformed into mini ecommerce applications, this is already a trend. In 2016, however, this would get to a whole new level – you will be able to buy trends/things without leaving the app. Year 2016 will be the rise of social commerce.
Why this will stay: Online buyers are the most time and convenience-conscious race and if social media apps could save them both in one shot, why not. The rest of the social media population would find it cooler to buy right from their apps since they will allow them what is termed as ‘on-the-go-shopping’. Anything that saves them some bandwidth, read saves time, is a good thing.

3. Article publishing minus annoyance: Yeah, people are reading more than ever, thanks to some content curation websites who have a giant share in Facebook’s online content. And now that the social media giant has introduced the Instant Articles features, other social media apps can only use the article publishing feature for deeper engagement.
Why this will stay: Many content websites may not be as robust as social media websites. Upon clicking, the readers often abandon the website due to its loading speed. So unless the social media apps could integrate default article publishing onto their platforms, users will keep getting annoyed. Do you know what’s the average attention span of an online user? 8 seconds! Yeap, one notch less than a goldfish!

4. Seeing is believing: Market trends indicate that more than 50% of the social media users prefer videos and images over text content. However, given the infamy content websites have earned due to their photoshopped images, videos have suddenly become more believable on social media than anything. Videos are thus the way forward for social media apps in 2016 with the most creative ones riding the bandwagon.
Why this will stay: Credibility has become crucial on social media which is perceived as a serious part of life for information sharing. People depend on social media platforms for news and views. The social media platforms that allow faster streaming of videos will have a renewed credibility. Moreover, the lure of advertising through short videos will compel companies to encourage social media apps with the best video sharing options.

5. Do the Google: Social media apps will have to do the Google now. That means they will have to do enough data analytics to predict users’ behavior and suggest personalized search options, the way Google does. So when a user types a name on the search options, the social media app would have to remind him/her about recent searches based on his/her behavior. The Big Three are already doing this and the only way to make your social media app stand out is to get some interesting advanced search hacks to hook the users.
Why this will stay: Social network features are now bringing various aspects of users’ lives onto one platform. Of course convenience is the key. When all the content is slowly coming onto the social media apps directly, ‘search’ cannot be any different. Search is an inseparable part of users’ daily lives which if integrated with social media apps at a better level, would keep the users stay on the app for a longer duration.

Year 2016 is thus poised to be a period where social media will find ways to make users stay longer on their websites or apps. We at Vinfotech are prepared to be on top of this wave through our social media app platform vSocial. If you think we could help you make a blockbuster social media app, give us a shout.