Your Complete Guide to Developing a Video Social Media Application like TikTok

Social media is a promising market to establish a niche for your business. Here are some interesting statistics  to prove this claim:

• 53.6% of the population worldwide uses social media
• The average daily usage for various social media apps is 2 hours and 25 minutes. 
• In the last 12 months, 316 million new users globally have come online
• As of January 2021, TikTok and Instagram are among the top 10 most used social media apps worldwide. 

It is the internet age, where users want to communicate, share, like, and discover content that is relevant to their needs. It could be for self-affirmation, attention, communication or creating an image for themselves. Social media usage has considerably increased due to the pandemic since everyone is stuck at home and is socially isolated- but connected with the world thanks to social media.

Apps like Tiktok aim to provide its audience base with three major features:

• Self-expression 
• Public outreach
• Discovery of like-minded individuals 

These three features are what make it so popular among audiences of different demographics. The fact that you can connect with individuals globally and demonstrate your art is a whole new ballgame that users of different age groups have started to explore.  Since many countries have banned TikTok, now is the right time to create a similar application to replace this popular social media application. 

This article will guide you through the features, methodology of development, and other specifics that will help your business come up with a similar app without any hassle. 

Basic Features of an App like TikTok

Here are the basic features that should be incorporated in a video app:

• Sign-up and Sign-in functionality for new users to register and existing users to sign in.  Create and set up a user's profiles, and edit them whenever needed. Share created videos on other social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.
• Push notifications to notify users about new messages, likes, comments, shares, and more.
• Filters and editing effects to beautify created videos with various filters and effects.
• Video upload to profile.
• Video editing feature after video uploading.
• Allow users to like, comment and share uploaded videos.
• Allow users to virtually "follow" each other. 
• Admin management to monitor videos for any spam, abusive, and inappropriate content.
• Delete and block offensive user profiles.
• Video preview to enable users to preview their videos before posting.
• Real-time analytics to check the live viewers. 
• Dashboard or insights to understand popularity judging from the total number of comments and likes.
• Live video streaming.
• AR-based filters like changing the color of a user's eyes in real-time or adding fun objects like a flower, crown, a hat etc., on the head virtually.
• Duets or remixes to allow two or more users to create a video together.
• A "Suggestions" page curated as per the user's subscriptions and interests.

How to Create a Video Sharing Social Media Application?

Step 1: Consider the Purpose and Objectives of the Application from a User's Perspective Answer questions like why would a user want to install and use your application?  What features would people expect from this app? How will your app address content, functionality, and ease of use requirements? 

Step 2: Creating a Strategy for your Application Thoroughly study the idea by analyzing the competitive field and user requirements, finalize your target audience, and establish key performance indicators to be achieved.

Step 3: Curate a team! Developing a video-sharing social network app requires a great deal of effort and a full-fledged development team to ensure app development. The team required includes:

• UI/UX professionals
• Android, iOS or cross platform developers
• Project managers
• Backend and frontend developers
• Quality test professionals
• Support and maintenance professionals

Step 4: Design the Application Workflow This phase can include steps like:

• Wireframing- helps the development team visualize the structure of social media applications and provides a holistic overview of the input/output functionalities throughout the application.
• Prototyping-  creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) helps developers gain a better understanding of the additional features to be added or unnecessary features to be eliminated from the application.

Step 5: Development and Quality Assurance  This phase is where the development team will choose a stack for development and, empowered with the design team's wireframes, will replicate the app specifications. The quality test professionals can then test every functionality developed- either iteratively or all at once- along with specifics related to the application's backend, databases, APIs, storage, and other nitty-gritties. At every stage of development, it is recommended to conduct manual or automated testing. 

Step 6: Publishing and Marketing Once the app is published, create all promotional materials, including video guides and blog articles, to help the app stand out on the platform of choice (Example- Apple Store or Google Play Store).

Step 7: Maintenance and Support After the application is released to the market, ensure that steady support, bug fixes and security patches are released on a timely basis.

Final Thoughts

Apps like Tiktok are super fun to use and have kept its audience hooked right since its inception. This guarantees that any app created in the footsteps of TikTok will be successful! We hope that this complete guide to the features and steps of developing a video social media app like TikTok will help you develop a unique and popular application. Empowered with this information, you can kickstart your journey into one of the most exciting and trending areas of social media.

Looking for a trusted technology partner to turn your vision into reality? Biz4Group is one of the leading IT companies worldwide with strong suits in mobile and web app development. Our seasoned team of developers has a demonstrated experience of delivering nothing but the best to our clientele across the globe. For more insights on app development , visit our website today!