The Forgotten Social Media Apps Lost to Time

The social media landscape is always changing. In recent years, social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok have dominated the scene, with more millennials and Gen Zers getting on board and using these apps extensively. Every few years, different social media apps grow in popularity, so depending on which app you’ve used or loved, it’s easy to assume your biological age. 

It has to be said though that your technological age isn’t always the same as your biological age. If you’re the sort that loves keeping up with the latest social media and technology trends, it’s likely that your technological age could be younger than your biological age. Take the quiz to find out. 

Unless you’re committed to constantly trying out new apps, it’s often hard to keep up with the changes in social media. After all, before there was Facebook, there was MySpace and before Instagram Stories existed, there was Vine and Snapchat. 

We take a look at some of the older social media apps that have contributed to the rise of some of our favorite social media platforms now. 

Vine 

Vine was a video-based social networking app that allowed users to share six-second long videos as looping video clips. The app was acquired by Twitter in 2012. In 2013, the app became the most used video-sharing application in the market, even though app downloads were relatively small. In the same year, the app became the most downloaded app within the Apple App Store.

Vine was best known for its satirical videos, with many of them getting shared on Twitter and made into compilations on YouTube. In 2016, Twitter announced that Vine would shut down. Currently, Vine is in an archived state and users can still watch videos that have been posted before. 

In some ways, apps like TikTok and features like Instagram Stories are similar to Vine. 

Friendster and MySpace

Similar to Facebook, Friendster and MySpace were social networking sites that allowed users to be virtual friends with people they knew. Users could write on their friends’ “walls” or in Friendster’s case, create testimonials. Friendster was created in 2002 while MySpace was created in 2003. 

Thanks to rising competition with other apps, both Friendster and MySpace have suffered from  a loss of followers. Eventually, Friendster closed in 2015 while MySpace lost all their user content from 2015 and earlier in botched server migration. 

AIM

Popular in the 1990s, AIM, or AOL Instant Messenger as it was otherwise known, was an instant messaging platform created by the American Online company. Similar to Skype, AIM was a way for people to keep in touch with their friends and family through chat and calls. Users were generally teenagers and college students. 

Over time, AIM’s popularity suffered with stiff competition from sites like Skype, Google Talk, and more. In 2015, Verizon Communications acquired AOL. In 2017, the company announced that it would discontinue AIM. 

Digg 

Similar to Reddit, Digg is a news aggregation site with a curated front page. Launched in 2004, Digg had a similar interface to Reddit. The site operated on a voting system where users could vote to dig or bury content they found interesting. 

In 2010, Digg underwent a redesign and now looks more like a regular lifestyle news site. In 2018, the platform was sold to BuySellAds, an advertising company.

Foursquare

Foursquare is a unique social media platform that allowed users to tag themselves in locations such as restaurants, landmarks, and events. The platform popularized the notion of live location sharing and also helped small and local businesses gain recognition. 

Foursquare was launched in 2009. Since then, they’ve launched many other different types of services, including a location platform called Places with an API that enables companies like Apple, Twitter, and Snapchat to use its data. 

While Foursquare isn’t as popular as it used to be, manyf social media companies nowadays work with the API from the platform and has been inspired by its concept.

If there’s one thing that we’ve noticed from the list, it’s that many new social media platforms have taken a leaf out of older social media apps to try and improve their platforms. It’s always exciting to see how technology advances and improves over time. 

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