Here is a list of 4 free Facebook alternative you can try. Facebook is, no doubt, the most dominant social network on the Internet with 1.35 billion users and 865 million daily active users (Source: India Today Tech). These figures show that Facebook is the giant but as per some new studies, it has been revealed that Facebook is getting less and less cooler as the time is passing, especially among teenagers. According to a report from Frank N. Magid Associates Inc., the popularity of Facebook has declined to 88% in 2014 as compared to 94% in 2013 (Source: Bloomberg).
So in case if you are one of those who are finding Facebook less cool, then this article is for you. And if you love Facebook, then you can continue to read it just to check out the free Facebook alternatives because who knows, Facebook might be a thing of past like Orkut and other social networks. I know.. I know, that chances are slim but still; you never know.
So let’s get started with these Facebook alternatives.
1. Vk (originally VKontakte):
The first Facebook alternative you can try is Vk. It is the largest Russian social network (290+ million users) which is massively popular in Europe. The social network has the interface and feel of Facebook (see screenshot above) but with different features and options. It is very easy on Vk to move around between your feeds, messages, photos, videos, communities, Settings, etc. All these things are placed as a separate section on the left side with one click access. You don’t have to go around clicking on multiple options or drop-down menus. It also comes with a built-in music player using which you can stream songs, create playlists of your favorite ones and even upload your own songs.
You can search for friends on Vk easily with the help of multiple criteria to choose from. You can find them on the basis of region, school, college, age, sex, relationship status, and various other criteria. Just like Facebook, Vk also has games for you to play with friends or alone. When you will send the request to any user, you start following him and when that user accepts the request, only after that you both are termed as friends. For new users, Vk offers 30 invites for inviting your friends, family, and relatives. Users with invite don’t have to sign-up and can start using Vk directly.
In terms of security, Vk offers 2-step verification, check activity history, and enable/disable encryption (HTTPS). Under privacy section, you can set individual settings for even minutest of things related to your posts, profile, who can contact you, etc.
2. Diaspora*:
Diaspora* is the Facebook alternative which is a community driven, distributed social network. It means that Diaspora* is not owned by any single person and anyone can set up and host it on his/her own server. The network of multiple hosted copies of Diaspora* is known as Pods and these pods can connect with each other. Although if you are not a techie guy and don’t want to host it, then you can simply join any of the available pods. For all the available pods, it shows the name, uptime %, number of users, location, and external social networks to which you can post. On signing up with any pod of your choice, you can start using it immediately.
You can add your interests via hashtags and Diaspora* shows latest posts related to them. You can share any post in text form, add photo, poll, and location. The website lets you preview the post before publishing it and choose the type of users with whom you want to share it. It also supports Markdown for formatting your post. Just like Twitter, you can also mention other users by using @ in front of their username. Under settings option, you can choose stream preferences, sharing settings, enable mail notifications, etc.
3. Path:
The third Facebook alternative for you to try out is Path. It is an Android and iPhone app which lets users get in touch with each other. It doesn’t have Web version as of now. Using its smartphone apps, you can post about the music you are listening, the places you are visiting, share photos and normal status updates. Each of the updates is considered as a Moment and you can see all your moments via a timeline which shows each of them in order of date and time. Any of your contacts can add comment or like it. The app also has Sleep mode which you can enable when you are going to bed and the app will display that you are sleeping in the timeline. When you wake up, tap on the wake-up option and your timeline will also reflect the same. In sleep mode, the app keeps counting the time and in the morning, you can check the amount of time you slept. The app also has cool smileys and stickers which you can use to make your texts look more expressive.
4. Ello:
Ello is the last website in this list. It is a young social network which has already been tagged as the Anti-Facebook as they are against many of the ways Facebook works. They claim that the end user is not an end product for them. They don’t sell data to any third party and it is ad-free. The other unique thing of Ello is its minimal user interface with nothing that shouldn’t be there.
Ello has two categories: Friends and Noise. The first one shows updates from your friends and the Noise shows updates from everyone else. For each update, you can check time elapsed since the update, number of views, comments, and repost. As for you, you can post status as simple text, photos, and videos. Ello also has notifications sorted on the basis of mentions, followers, and an option to see all notifications at the same place.
Under Settings option, you can make your profile public/private and enable/disable comments, sharing, reposting, of your posts. It also has an option for disabling the embedded third party media files as they have advertisements. It also has specific settings for notifications and NSFW content along with an option to delete your account whenever you want.
Do note that Ello is still under Beta phase and hence it’s invite only. You need to have an invite in order to register with Ello. You can get the invitation to join Ello from either anyone who has an account on Ello or directly from Ello by providing your email address.
Here, it’s time to wrap this list 4 free Facebook alternative you can try. If you have any thing to ask or suggest, feel free to ask in comments.
You may also like: 13 Best Free Facebook Client Software.
