This weekend, a relatively unknown new social app surged up to the top of the Apple App Store. The app? Vero – true social.
Vero has been around for nearly three years but it is now the top new social network. The app has nearly one million users, having added around 500,000 in the past few days.
Here’s everything you need to know about the new social media app.
What is Vero and who is behind it?
Vero was launched in 2015 but a billionaire businessman, Ayman Hariri, whose father was the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.
Its USP is that the platform has no ads and will not be mining your data to sell to future advertisers. Hariri says he started the app because of a personal frustration with existing social networks.
What makes Vero different?
Vero is trying to be Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Spotify rolled into one. On the News Feed, you will see your posts as well as the posts of people you connect with or follow.
Posts can be photos, or text and URLs, as well as recommendations for music and TV shows.
The real kicker for Vero is that it says it doesn’t manipulate or curate your feed. Posts are sorted chronologically, instead of via algorithms.
This means the app is particularly popular with people who are frustrated by Instagram’s algorithm changes.
In fact, this may be why Vero is enjoying a surge in popularity.
Vero isn’t just about growing followers
One interesting aspect of the app is that there are differences between friends and followers.
Within the friends' settings, there are three tiers: close friends, friends, and acquaintances. When you accept a friend request, you can choose which tier they belong to. When you begin your profile you can choose to just have friends on the app, or also have followers too.
Then, when you post an image of your holiday, for example, you can choose which group of people see it. It can go to just close friends and friends or include acquaintances and followers too.
This is about encouraging a close community within your Vero friends, similar to your friend networks in real life.
Is Vero free to download?
At the moment, yes. The app is currently free to download on the App Store yet the startup is going to introduce an annual subscription fee eventually.
Hi new Vero users!
Since you’re all part of the first million users, you have FREE access to Vero FOR LIFE!
You will never be charged.
If you’re within the first one million customers, the app will remain free forever. But, if you’re after this cohort, you will be asked to pay a small fee which is reported to be around “a few dollars a year.”
However, Vero says that the annual fee means it won’t have to rely on advertisers. This means any information about you won’t be sold to third-party companies in exchange for an ad revenue, as other platforms like Facebook and Instagram are.
Considering the anxieties at the moment around the amount of data companies hold about its users, this is an interesting move.