Unless you have been hanging out in a cave for the past few weeks you know that Facebook has come under a great deal of scrutiny for its data privacy practices. This has the possibility of leading to sweeping changes to the world of social media and the possibility (or probability) that users will leave the platform. While there is no real direct competition to Facebook there are a number of other platforms that offer some similar services that could make deleting Facebook go much smoother.
News Feed
One of the main features that people like about Facebook is the news feed. It puts all of your friends posts into one easy to find place for you to view. Nuzzel can do the same thing and it can also sync other social media platforms as well. It is also capable of displaying the posts of friends of friends as well as the top stories being discussed at the time. Digg also can display news stories as well.
Messenger
Facebook’s Messenger service is perhaps its most useful part. As an alternative Signal has proven to be the best and may very well surpass Messenger. It is approved by Internet security experts and comes with none of the fancy animation that Facebook has embraced and have turned off many users. It is free with a desktop version as well and can also has video calling capabilities.
Event Planning
Another popular feature of Facebook is its events. It allows people to announce dates and times and to find out if people are coming or are interested. Both Paperless Post and Doodle allow for meeting or event planning, the only downside is that a person’s contact information needs to be had and that can be quite challenging. Paperless Post is available from Apple Store and is only available for iOS devices. Doodle allows for people to enter their free time so that an agreed upon time can be decided on that works for everyone. Potential participants are polled (they do not need to be Doodle users to participate) for location and time leaving the planner able to pick the time and place that works best.
Groups
Facebook Groups has been an important feature. Whether it is for a TV show fan club, for beer drinkers of the world or just for a group of friends to chat it is one of the most important features of the platform. It will be hard to duplicate this outside of Facebook but GroupMe comes the closest allowing for a group chat to share photos. G Chat from Google works as well and there is always Reddit, Tumblr, Raftr (only available for iOS) or for more niche topics Amino.
Birthdays
Don’t want to forget a friend’s birthday? It’s a nice feature of Facebook isn’t it? Well, those birthdays can be exported to a calendar. Yes, you won’t have the handy feature that lets you write a message directly to them but this works just as well and can have a more personal touch.
Marketplace
Want to buy or sell something. Facebook’s Marketplace was one of the places to do it. It was designed to connect people in a community and (hopefully) have less risk than Craigslist. NextDoor works just as well to connect people within a neighborhood using a private messaging app.
Other accounts linked to Facebook
A Facebook login has also been able to be used to gain access to other platforms, from Untappd to Spotify and many others. Most people use this method to either directly link their Facebook account or to remember the login credentials easier. While no other apps will work quite the way the former does you will be able to access the platforms other ways, you will just have to start over. Or you could just keep the Facebook page and just never use it. As for the latter reason a password manager will work better in fact and is recommended by security experts.
True competitors?
If you just want to connect with friends, well there is always Twitter. It is for more than just people who complain a lot and you have the added benefit of learning what the President is thinking. If that is not for you Facebook does have a potential direct competitor emerging in Vero, which has been gaining popularity since the whole Cambridge Analytica scandal broke. 3 million users signed up in 2018 overloading its systems. It is not intended to be addicting like Facebook is and is geared towards simply bringing people with similar interests together with the added benefit of being advertiser free. Users can post videos, photos, links and display their location but it may not prove to be a viable alternative as it has experienced its own backlash as its CEO has had past scandals of his brought come to light.
A potential marketplace now exists for a competitor to Facebook. Can one emerge? For many Facebook is simply too convenient to discard and the thought of using eight other platforms to achieve what Facebook can do is not worth it. Is it worth it for you or your business? That is up to you.