27 Dec RIP: Social Media Networks & Features that Died in 2016
Needless to say, a lot of newsworthy events happened in 2016. The social media space saw many changes as well. Social media networks constantly have to improve and evolve in order to stay relevant. This post will revisit some of the social media networks and channel features that didn’t make it to 2017.
Vine
We will start with maybe one of the more shocking channels that saw its last updates in 2016, Vine. In October, Vine announced that it will be discontinuing their mobile app. This came as a shock to many of the creators that have been loyal to the six second video platform. Vine enabled users to download their content and kept the website version online so people could still view the content. Just last week, Vine announced that in January the app will turn into in app called Vine Camera. This will enable users to create 6.5-second looping videos and share them to Twitter or save them to their phones. Users will also be able to transition their Vine followers to Twitter.
Meerkat
Meerkat was another social platform that went under in 2016. Meerkat was a first mover in the livestreaming space, but they couldn’t keep up with Facebook and Twitter. Meerkat was officially pulled off of the app-store in September. However, the same makers of Meerkat recently introduced a new chatting app called ‘Houseparty’. The future of Houseparty, a private video chat app for group hangouts, is yet to be determined.
Twitter as a Social Network
While still alive, it was a rough year for Twitter. Twitter went through a pretty big restructure which meant their heads of engineering, media, product and Vine have left the company. In April of 2016, Twitter re-categorized itself on the app store, moving from a ‘Social Networking’ app to a ‘News’ app. Twitter has some work to do to figure out what space it wants to own in 2017.
Instagram Photo Maps
In September, Instagram killed off the photo map feature. This feature allowed users to see a map of where a someone’s photos were taken, if they tagged a location. Users could also zoom in on the maps to get a closer look of where photos were taken in a particular city or region. According to Instagram, this feature wasn’t widely used, so they decided to focus on other areas of the app.
Snapchat Local Stories
It was a good year for Snapchat. The app saw a lot of growth and expanded from Snapchat to Snap, Inc. Despite the success many features of the app were experiencing, Local Stories were not getting the same love. Local stories were curated stories of what was happening in large cities like New York and L.A. Snapchat decided to squash the feature in September and focus on Group Stories for larger events—holidays, sporting events, and red carpets.
Which social networks or features were you most surprised to see disappear in 2016? Any bold predictions on what make not make it through 2017?
