Hive Social Is a New Social Media App That Apparently Blew up Over Night

The Hive Social app is apparently the newest, trendiest social media platform for Gen Z. Based on Hive's Twitter account, it aims to be similar to Instagram, but without the annoying ads and finicky algorithm. And a lot of people who are sick of Facebook and Twitter's social networking monopoly are excited to join. But what exactly is Hive Social? We did a deeper dive.

Although the app isn't new (it was seemingly created or at least marketed in 2019), people have flocked to Twitter today to find out more about this new-ish social media app, some making memes that sum up our collective attitude about yet another new social media app we have to figure out.

Hive Social aims to be a BS-free social networking platform. Design and experience-wise, it's similar to Instagram. It has a grid and a "feed" where you can follow other users and also follow content based on your interests, like beauty, fashion, gaming, etc. You can also pick songs for your profile (the first one is free, the others cost $.99 a pop). And if you downloaded Hive and are having trouble using it, you're not alone. Apparently due to all the new users, their servers went down. 

That's right: According to Hive's Twitter account, they gained over 130,000 followers over night. As of right now, it's unclear what caused this surge in users. 

According to Life&Style, Hive was created and is run by a woman named Kassandra (@honeyxmua on Twitter). “HIVE is really a place where everyone is welcome, so we want to attract everyone from all communities — the everyday person to bloggers for travel, food, beauty, cars, etc., to small businesses and big brands. Whatever your interests are —  if they fall within our Community Guidelines designed to keep HIVE safe and respectful — you’ll have a space with us,” Kassandra shared.

She elaborated more about the app, saying, “HIVE is oriented [around] the user experience through a chronological order feed that maximizes content engagement...the ability to select multiple songs for a more personalized profile that will play when users visit your page, liking, commenting and reposting content.”

According to a feature on Hive on Her Paper Route, Hive seems to be trying to democratize the social media experience, making it so anyone can monetize off of their account, and they'll be given much more freedom to do so. "With the Hive app you can literally monetize your account the moment you sign up.  This is the biggest news in the world of affiliate and influencer marketing right now." You're allowed to post links in your caption and comment with URLs you want to promote.

This is why, allegedly, a lot of influencers are really interested in Hive (we've yet to find any influencers using the app, but we'll update this article once we do). On Instagram you need to have at least 10,000 followers to feature a swipe-up in your Instagram Story, and the only way to promote a link is to put it in your bio. Hive seems to solve that problem.

Currently, it seems like Hive is a one-woman team (or at least, a very small team). According to Hive's Twitter feed, the CEO (Kassandra) runs the account.

According to Kassandra herself, she's planning on adding live streaming as a feature pretty soon. And Android users, you will soon be able to download the app (right now it's only available for Apple users). 

Will this be a new Instagram that changes the social media game? Stay tuned.