Social Networking App Development: Features and Technology Stack for a New-age App!

Posted by Parija Rangnekar On Filed under Social Media No Comments
Social Networking App Development: Features and Technology Stack for a New-age App!
Do you know?
“The number of social media users is projected to cross 3.43 billion in 2023, which will be nearly half of the total population of the world then.“
These numbers provided by Statista, a reputed online statistics portal, are astonishing! They showcase that this industry is growing by leaps and bound. Not only individuals but even professionals and business enterprises use these platforms for their growth. As a result, a plethora of social networking app development services has emerged across the globe. These apps have evolved over time with innumerable trendy features and tools. So one needs to keep abreast with the latest trends for each platform to build a top-of-the-line social media app.
This blog instills a detailed overview, features, and technology stack for architecting social media or social network apps. Let us delve into them.

Major Types of Social Media Apps

  • Photo/media-sharing platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, etc.
  • Social network apps like Facebook, Twitter, etc.
  • Chatting apps like WhatsApp.
  • Blogging and publishing sites like Medium
  • Internet discussion forums like Reddit, Quora, etc.
  • Business networking sites like LinkedIn.
  • Consumer review platforms like TripAdvisor.
  • Anonymous social networks like Anonyfish, Minds.com, etc
These apps have a general set of features embedded in them which are a must-have for any social media app. Let us have a glance at them:

Fundamental Features of Social Media Apps

Captivating user interface: The UI should form a great impression on users enabling easy navigation through the app. It should have a powerful and interactive visual design.
Easy registration and login: Considering the short attention span of today’s users, the registration and login processes must be as easy as possible.
Easier search functionality: Users should easily be able to search for anything by user names, tags, location, etc. As they start searching, the results should be filtered out and shown in a drop-down style at the earliest.
Private chatting and calling functionalities: A convenient chat feature for sending messages, photos, or other media and a calling feature to connect seamlessly are vital for these apps.
Message status: The users should be able to know if their message was read by the other users; they should also be able to hide their status if needed.
Ease of connectivity and expand user following: These apps must allow the users to easily access millions of people with ease and thus, build a following at a fast rate.
Creating and editing user profile: A thoughtful user profile that helps users to attract their target audience is essential for a social app. Users must be able to edit or customize it as well.
Push notifications: For keeping the users notified of recent activities and also about promotional activities, this feature is a must-have in the apps.
Appealing and real-time news feed: Relevant, real-time, and engaging news feed helps the users to stay tuned with information from friends and other communities. This potential feature compels the users to keep scrolling continuously.
Commenting, liking, and sharing: These features also ensure more engagement of the users.
Ability to add posts: Users should be able to express their thoughts on the platform. They should be able to share or upload files in the form of text, image, audio, video, etc. formats.
Group or community creating feature: Users, whether individuals or business entities, having common goals, interests, and values should be able to form groups or communities.
Add or remove friends/connections feature: Users must have the freedom to add, remove, or block their connections and also report if needed. This feature is extremely important in a world where unknown people connect so fast.
Emojis, GIFs, and stickers: These functionalities are necessary for ensuring that the apps give a more interactive and intuitive feel to the users.
Ability to integrate with other social media platforms: This feature helps the app owners to increase their user-base and drive adoption, thereby increasing its popularity.
Top-level security and privacy of information: Higher security and privacy features must be employed in the social apps to ensure secure interactions, prevent sensitive information of users, gain their confidence and thus, maintain the good reputation of the social network app.

A few more Advanced Features

  • Go live or broadcast feature
  • Hosting Watch Parties
  • Ability to highlight best stories
  • Ability to edit, crop or rotate images
  • Collaborative stories i.e. short-lived stories for one-day or limited time-span
  • Person-to-person (P-2-P) payment
Now as we are done with the features part, let us move to the technology stack requirements of these apps. There are two major parts- frontend and backend. Apart from this, we will also discuss the admin panel and database.

Social networking app development: Aspects to look for in Technology Stack

Frontend

Frontend development depends on several factors like frontend features to be inculcated, the framework to be chosen for faster development, best performance, and the flexibility of the app.
For developing a web frontend, AngularJs and Bootstrap are considered reliable. Some can also use ReactJs. After deciding these platforms, one can combine them with HTML and CSS for styling capabilities and develop outstanding social apps.
For developing native apps, native languages like the below can be preferred:
  • Android- Java or Kotlin
  • iOS- Objective C or Swift
For developing hybrid apps, one can use frameworks like Ionic, React Native, Flutter, Cordova/PhoneGap, etc.

Backend

Backend is a crucial part of development for determining what logic will be used and how. Node.js is being widely used for backend development of dynamic social apps that focus on real-time events that need quick data processing with minimal latency. Apart from Node.js, PHP and Ruby are also being used for backend development.

Admin Panel

The Admin panel can dramatically impact the budgets. Admin panel can be either developed in-house or with the help of other development companies, depending on your requirements and goals. Since it is a time and money intensive process, several companies don’t build their Admin panels from scratch and work with a third-party service. However, with third-party services, there are limitations as customization is not possible.

Database

Social apps need a huge amount of data to be accessed, stored, and processed. There are multiple databases available for the diverse needs of the apps. One can select any database: MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite or NoSQL database- for instance, MongoDB. However, we recommend using PostgreSQL or MySQL. For cloud services, Amazon Web Services are highly recommended as storage for all the data.

Wrap-up:

The best social network apps on the internet attract millions of users daily. This fact has inspired several business enthusiasts, investors, and entrepreneurs to break into this arena. We hope this blog has guided you in your social app development journey with the features and the technology stack to be used.
Please feel free to comment below to let us know your thoughts on this.
You may drop us a mail at sales.enquiry@biz4solutions.com for any doubts!

CMS Security for Safe Website

Posted by Parija Rangnekar On Filed under Web App No Comments
CMS Security for Safe Website
Web App Development Company
With the unprecedented increase in the count of websites online, security threats have also increased over the years.
While building a website has become simple, maintaining its suitable security levels is not easy. A Content Management System is an unmissable part of a website that aids in its growth with time.
Hence, following appropriate CMS security tips is vital to safeguard it from hackers.
Amidst the rising number of cyber threats, it is essential to enjoy a proactive approach in your company to avoid being a victim.
A common CMS benefit is allowing the members to update the website through an intuitive interface rather than using a designated code for the job.
Hence, safeguarding the CMS for a safe website is necessary. However, first, you should know the security threats that commonly attack your website’s CMS:
  • Modifying the settings or parameters
    • Cybercriminals add malicious SQL: codes in the entry field, thereby changing the parameters. Using malicious SQL statements in the entry field changes the settings causing great losses.
  • Compromised user data
    • User data is a company’s major priority, and hackers are well-aware of it. Third-party untrusted applications are used to transfer the harmful code to compromise user data.
  • Injection of code
    • Injection of code has a devastating effect as the full server can be taken down or corrupted, making the company face severe data loss.
However, here are some measures to keep the CMS safe and sound and protect your website and its assets in every possible way.
Web App Developers
  • Always use the updated software versions.
    • Website safety is dicey. It needs consistent monitoring and updates to add to the website’s health. It has been seen that websites that aren’t updated frequently often fall victim to cyber attackers.
    Hence, all companies should have a system that immediately mentions software and plug-in update requests.
    In addition, the website should be monitored for all updates because outdated software is susceptible to attackers and bots. By scanning the website periodically, this chaos can be avoided.
  • Employ HTTPS protocol by installing SSL Certificate
    • A safe website connection enhances website security. It is seen that visitors share their information with websites with HTTPS rather than HTTP.
    In simple words, HTTPS means HTTP with SSL. An SSL Certificate is a security protocol that ensures a secure interface to share confidential data between the browser and client-server.
    The main aim of installing an SSL certificate is to secure your website connection and CMS. Choosing the perfect SSL type from the most reliable CAs can seem tough.
    We have made the task simpler for you; you can choose from a host of CAs such as Comodo, RapidSSL, AlphaSSL, etc.
    If you seek a recommendation on the best and cheapest cert option for a single domain then, there are RapidSSL certificate, GlobalSign single domain, Comodo Essential SSL, etc.
    For e.g., Comodo Essential is available at affordable rates and legally used by millions of companies to safeguard their website and CMS. Comodo Essential SSL offers high-quality encryption features to secure ecommerce transactions and protect customer-sensitive data. With the Comodo Essential SSL certificate, the website will have high security with the padlock, keeping the website’s connection and customer data secure.
  • Use strong passwords
    • The number of hacked websites is rising every day, thereby adding to the importance of stronger passwords. It is suggested to use unique and strong passwords.
    Make sure the password isn’t the same for any other platform. Always use alphanumeric and special characters together to form a password. A password manager can be used to choose a strong password to keep the website’s CMS safe.
  • Create a backup
    • To make your website safe, it is essential to have a good backup solution. In times of emergency, every company should have a strong backup that serves as a helping hand during mishaps.
    It prevents the company from taking all measures to recover the damaged files. Always keep a backup online and offline. Cloud backup is a great option to store data easily and access it anywhere. Automatic backups are also useful for efficient and trustworthy recovery.
  • Safe web hosting
    • The host must offer safety amenities to safeguard the website data. Hence, the host should be chosen with great thought and research. Make sure all the security features all well-understood. Also, check out the secure file transfer protocol and the backup services offered by the web host.
    Once the website owner checks the security features, the web hosting services can be finalized. Also, discuss the security upgrades provided consistently.
  • Altering the default CMS settings
    • Cybercriminals implement automated attacks to harm websites. Once the CMS has been selected, it is essential to alter the default settings. The amendments completely affect the attack rate. Factors such as user visibility, granting access, and control in the comments are involved in this process.
    Thus, there is a requirement to modify the users and grant access. It is noticed that the companies that don’t work on the CMS default settings fall victim to hacker attacks at some phase.
  • Security plug-ins installation
    • Regardless of the safety and the CMS, an extra security layer works as the backbone. For example, aligning the servers offers an exclusive safety layer, but high skills are needed to safeguard the servers safely.
    Therefore, it is more convenient to go for an extension or plug-in to confirm the server configuration and add that additional safety layer to the CMS.
    However, the plug-in feature should be used cautiously as it can pose a later security threat. Also, the plug-ins should be updated regularly to remove all security-related threats.
  • Firewall configuration for enhanced safety
    • To avoid hackers from getting access to your system, the goal should be to stop them at the starting only, where they fail to cross the CMS boundary. After that, one must maintain a check on the connections.
    When discussing the security guide for CMS, the firewall offers several benefits as it keeps the malicious activities at bay and doesn’t allow the hackers and bots to go past the system. It also provides a specific pace to your workflow by allowing filtration as and when needed.

Conclusion

Most companies know how hackers try to get into their systems. Hence, following the above-given steps for their CMS security is important. Furthermore, as a business owner, you must put regular effort into your website.
Leaving the website as it is may create security issues and distrust within the customers. Hence, one should proactively provide complete security to their website and customer data.
If you are looking for technical assistance for developing an impeccable website and maintaining it, contact Biz4Solutions, a distinguished Web App development company. We have an extensive experience of 10+ years in tailoring secure and responsive websites for global clients, based on their business objectives.