If you've been on Twitter or Facebook in recent days, you've probably seen someone, very possibly an influencer, talking about a social media app called Vero.
That's right, another social media app is vying for your time and smartphone space. Vero (or "Vero - True Social") has actually been around for a few years, as The Independent reports, but it's now beginning to grow in popularity.
The big questions are obviously "what is Vero?" and "why should I consider downloading it?" After all, many of us struggle to keep up with the social media apps we already have, and may find our relationship with them can become a bit love/hate.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Well, Vero is a social media app for your smartphone, a bit like Instagram, but it claims in its manifesto to offer a more "authentic" experience. It gives you an old-school chronological feed which means you'll see everything posted by the people you connect with, in the exact order they posted it.
"The feed is composed of your posts and the posts of people you're either connected with or people you follow," Vero says. "We don't curate it, manipulate it, insert advertising in it, or hold back posts. You see what has been shared with you, when it's been shared with you."
It's also a subscription-based social network. The first million people to join will be given free Vero for life, but after that people will be charged a "small annual fee" to sign up.
These annual subscriptions are actually at the very core of what Vero is about. "As a subscription-based service, our users are our customers, not the product we sell to advertisers," Vero explains. "Our subscription model will allow us to keep Vero advertising-free, and to focus solely on delivering the best social experience instead of trying to find new ways to monetise our users’ behaviour or tricking them back into the app with notifications."
Companies can obviously still post on Vero, but they'll have to pay whenever they include a "buy now" link.
So, is Vero truly a threat to the mighty Instagram and Facebook? It's too soon to tell, but social media apps can definitely come in and out of fashion, as Kylie Jenner pointed out earlier this week. And if you are tempted to give Vero a go, it's probably worth downloading the app ASAP, before those free subscriptions run out.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT