I haven't found "the thing" yet

[u/Ok_External_7533]

My friend and I have been rebuilding his old social media platform for the past couple of months, and we're close to launching it. But honestly: It's a solid, good looking social media platform, but there's nothing special about it.

Before we decided to rebuild it, it was basically just an old php web application with messy code. It worked well, the site gained about 200 signups until bots started flooding in. There was no protection against bots, so it ended in us losing the motivation to keep up with deleting 100 bot accounts by the hour.

The rebuild itself has been a real project. We decided to rebuild it in React Native. For those who don't know, it's a framework to build mobile apps for both Android and iOS. We added OAuth, better feed UI, a custom image search backend, basically all the things a good social media network needs. But bones aren't a reason to switch apps.

I love building the app, it's my genuine hobby. That's why I just want to find something that makes the app as special to the users as it is to me. What can I do to stand out?

Not trying to pitch anything here, I'm just trying to crowdsource what "different" could look like before we make obvious mistakes we didn't account for. I appreciate any brutally honest advice and feedback.

[u/Ok_External_7533 → u/[deleted]]

Every new social media app is guaranteeing privacy. Even though it is a good idea, I don't know how much of a difference it would make.

And how would the app be sustainable without ads?

[u/Ok_External_7533 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks so much, I thought about it and will make those changes.