Why Everyone Is Talking About New Social Media App Vero

You may have noticed everyone on your Instagram feed over the past 24 hours has been talking about the same thing; new social media app Vero. But what is it, how does it work and why should you care?

What is Vero?

In a nutshell, Vero’s model is a creative sharing platform that is ad-free, subscription-based and encourages a more ‘natural’ way of sharing. Users’ connections are grouped together as ‘acquaintances’, ‘friends’, ‘close friends’ etc. and with each post, you can choose which group sees what. The first million users can join and use the app for free before Vero introduces their subscription model, as opposed to relying on advertisers, to make money. That means no boosted posts, no brand advertisements in your feeds and no spam.

How Does it Work?

Vero looks like a typical photo-sharing app, but you can also share links, text posts, recommendations etc. You can create and share posts, chat with connections, create a bio for yourself and like and comment on your connections’ posts.

‘But don’t we already have Instagram for sharing that stuff?’, we hear you cry. Yes, we do, but another thing you may have noticed on your feeds lately is folks giving out about ‘algorithms’. Instagram has suffered huge criticism in the past few months over its algorithm which rewards posts with higher engagement by giving them a more prominent place on your feed. It’s now estimated that less than 10% of our audiences on Instagram are seeing our posts and despite the backlash from users, the ‘Gram is showing no signs of going back to a chronological feed. Users, especially the likes of bloggers and influencers, are fed up and want better options for sharing. Enter Vero.

First Impressions

The app has received insane traffic over the last few days, so much so that many new users have been complaining that they can’t sign in or post at all. Not a great first impression for the ‘next big social network’.

Upon signing up and logging in for the first time, it looks like a more professional, streamlined version of Instagram. Along the top of the screen is your banner of uses; a search bar, your dashboard (your profile), your collections (the categories of your posts), your notifications and your messages. Most of the screen is taken up by your feed, which you can scroll through, like and comment like any other app.

It’s a nice user interface but doesn’t feel very ‘social network-y’ – it more so seems like an online portfolio. Granted, with it being in its first couple of days of popularity, our feeds are pretty empty and so this might improve with more connections being made.

The main attraction of Vero is that it’s offering something different and a solution to the frustrations that people have been having with more popular social networks for a while now. The real question is whether it will deliver on its promises of an ad-free, completely authentic ‘social network that lets you be yourself’ that will stand the test of time.