The Hive Social app is abuzz with activity following the influx of an additional 250,000 users on Tuesday and officially reaching two million app downloads. The indie social media app continues to expand at an increasing rate as more and more users abandon Twitter and look for greener pastures.
The Hive Social App is Expanding Rapidly
By getting 250,000 new users practically overnight, Hive Social became one of the top apps on the U.S. App Store, much like other Twitter alternatives such as Mastodon. The influx of users was so great that it’s put a serious strain on Hive Social’s three-person team, causing bugs like duplicate usernames to crop up.
While issues plaguing the up-and-coming social media app are relatively straightforward to fix, the growing Twitter exodus is more complicated to deal with. Long-time users are fleeing the verification chaos, cybersecurity issues and Elon Musk’s promises of “free speech” without an idea of how to moderate it. Some are even leaving in protest following Musk’s decimation of Twitter employee ranks.
As users flock to different Twitter alternatives, some are choosing to avoid large players such as Instagram or TikTok, instead opting for small businesses (like how Hive Social used to be).
What Is Hive Social?
Hive Social is a crossover between Twitter and Instagram, relying on the best of both worlds while doing away with less desirable features. There’s also a pinch of MySpace in there as users can add music to profiles from their Spotify or Apple Music accounts.
According to TechCrunch, “Hive may feel more comfortable to former Twitter users looking for a new home because the app has a simple and familiar set of navigation options — there are tabs for viewing the main timeline or feed, a 'Discover' section for exploring the social network, a tab for accessing your profile, and another for your notifications, for example. In the center, there’s a button to create a new post.”
Unlike Twitter, which is often bashed for harboring toxicity, Hive Social managed to maintain a healthy, respectful community. At least until now.
Kassandra Pop, Hive Social founder whose real name is Raluca Pop, boasts of the platform’s “pleasant” community.
"We've really created and maintained a safe and healthy community. If you get on the app, it just feels really pleasant and relaxed," the 24-year-old mastermind behind the social networking app told Business Insider.
Content Moderation, a Growing Concern
It remains to be seen how the Hive Social app will handle some of the other issues troubling Twitter, like the question of moderation. While the network certainly doesn’t have the capacity to handle moderation at the moment, the recent upswing in user numbers will likely shift the company’s priority to resolving this particular question.
“At the time when I took this on, I had a separate full-time job, but now that I'm able to dedicate myself fully to it... now we're able to take a lot more steps and truly hyperfocus on this, so content moderation is a priority for us because our user safety is a priority for us,” Pop said.
