Thanks to social networking apps, it's never been easier to keep in contact with your friends.
Many of the best social networking apps out there have been around for a while, but as smartphones get smarter, so do the apps, and you can now do more than ever.
From fan favorites like Instagram and Facebook to newcomers like live-streaming Periscope, there's never been a better time to find a social network that's tailored to your tastes.
Facebook Messenger is becoming the one app to rule them all.
Facebook’s decision to break Messenger out of its main app in 2014 turned out to be a very smart move. Messenger now has 700 million users worldwide, and it’s become much more than a way to send text messages to friends.
Messenger can now send money, make video and phone calls over the internet, and send stickers and animated GIFs with ease. When Facebook’s virtual assistant “M” becomes available outside of San Francisco, Messenger will be able to do anything from order a pair of shoes to call your cable company for you.
If the future is one app that does everything, Messenger is poised to be a big winner.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android, web
Timehop will make you feel nostalgic.
The premise of Timehop is simple: connect your social media accounts, and the app shows you what you shared online a year ago, two years ago, and even further back.
It's like getting a window into your past life on social media every day.
Earlier this year, Timehop told Business Insider that the app could eventually show you more than posts on social media, like rides with Uber, the songs you listened to on Spotify, your heath tracker data, and even your text messages. The end goal is to be come the ultimate digital archive of your life.
Price: Free
Available on:iOS, Android
Periscope is revolutionizing live broadcasts.
What Twitter did for making micro-status updates, Periscope could do for live video broadcasts. That may explain why Twitter bought the app and its small team in February before it even launched.
If you’ve never used Periscope before, here’s how it works: download the app to your phone, log in, and start a live video stream with your phone’s camera. Your friends on Periscope and Twitter will be notified to tune in, and viewers can interact with broadcasts by commenting and leaving virtual hearts.
You can choose to save your broadcast for people to view on Periscope later, but every video shared on the service expires after 24 hours.
Periscope was born out of its CEO’s frustration with the media’s coverage of the Gezi protests in Turkey, and as it grows in popularity, people around the world are discovering how powerful it can be for sharing a unique perspective of what’s happening.
Reporter Paul Ronzheimer recently used Periscope to document his journey with a group of Syrian refugees from Greece to Germany. “In Germany we have been having a big discussion about the intensity of media coverage of this story. But on Periscope, everybody could see it was live,” he told The Guardian. “It happened. No one was cutting it, no one was putting a two- or three-minute piece together after we filmed it. And for Germans, it was really good to understand the problems the refugees have been facing.”
Price: Free
Available on:iOS, Android
See the rest of the story at Business Insider