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Your ICQ number is finally shuffling off to the great beyond. Russian company VK, which has been the service’s steward since 2010, published a message Friday that simply reads, “ICQ will stop working from June 26th,” and implores users to switch to its other chat solutions.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/25/24164579/icq-shut-down-june
University of North Carolina (UNC) System President Peter Hans announced a plan to block the use of popular anonymous social apps on campus, including Yik Yak, Fizz, Whisper and Sidechat. The ban would impact the 16 universities, like UNC Chapel Hill, NCSU, UNC Charlotte, and others, as well as one public residential high school that comprises the UNC system.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/07/anonymous-social-apps-face-another-reckoning-as-unc-system-to-ban-yik-yik-fizz-sidechat-whisper/
After almost a year as an invite-only app, Bluesky is now open to the public. Funded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Bluesky is one of the more promising micro-blogging platforms that could provide an alternative to Elon Musk’s X. Before opening to the public, the platform had about 3 million sign-ups. Now that anyone can join, the young platform faces a challenge: How can it meaningfully stand up to Threads’ 130 million monthly active users, or even Mastodon’s 1.8 million?
https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/06/bluesky-is-now-open-for-anyone-to-join/
BeReal, a rising social media app that emphasizes authenticity, is making its first outreach to brands and celebrities. Starting February 6, brands and celebrities will be able to sign up as “RealBrands” or “RealPeople,” and fans can watch them share behind the scenes moments from their lives that they might not share elsewhere.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/24/bereal-which-now-has-23m-daus-is-onboarding-brands-and-celebs/
While Meta is continuously introducing new features to Threads, the company is also deploying new tricks to ramp up engagement on the platform. In its latest move, the social media giant is showing posts from Threads on Facebook. While Threads is offering its features for free, the platform has its shortcomings. It’s hard to follow news on the platform as not all news sources are posting breaking news on Threads.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/19/threads-latest-growth-hack-is-showing-posts-on-facebook/
"To picture a Chat, imagine if your group texts and your Instagram Stories met at the park, talked for hours, became best friends and fell in love,” Clubhouse’s blog post says.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/06/clubhouse-is-trying-to-make-a-comeback/
Merely weeks after emerging as the apparent heir to address social media’s woes and generating over 100 million users in less than five days, Threads appears to be, well, fraying at the edges already with a recently reported 80% drop in daily active users since launch. The platform — celebrated early on for its “combination of the ridiculous, the lighthearted, and a little cringe” — has quickly become another example of the expeditious cycle by which innovation in social media operates and burns out users.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/30/in-threads-dwindling-engagement-social-medias-flawed-hypothesis-is-laid-bare/