Too many features in a world of focused apps?
Nostria is a social network with a lot of features - probably overwhelming to a lot of new users. There are multiple reasons for this, number one being that it attempts to be a social networking app that gives you a lot of features in a unified experience. Instead of spreading across multiple apps, having to deal with different UX and UIs, Nostria gives you a lot more than you think you need and as you learn the UI, you won’t be afraid to explore what is there.
From my own personal use of messaging and social apps, there is a repeating pattern that happens: I find something funny, cool or interesting, and I share it with my friends and family in a private chat.
So I end up needing to create accounts on every app that exists. Then I need to bring my friends and families onto each of those apps. So I end up with some chats on Signal, some on Snapchat, some on WhatsApp, some on Messenger (Meta), many on Telegram, some on Twitch, some on Spotify (yes, they also have messages now), very few on TikTok and plenty on Instagram. Instagram has perfected this experience, find something and you quickly share it in private messages.
Nostria has focused on making the same UX work well: Click Share and pick the people you want to send it to.
I wanted this user experience, and others, in a single app and single social network. So I decided to build Nostria, running on Nostr protocol, which is a decentralized social network. That means my app is not the only app on Nostr, there are hundreds of apps available - all with different features, different focus.
Yet, I didn’t want Nostria to be yet another app on Nostr - I wanted it to be the place to go for everything. People are fatigued with apps, long ago. Now each of the different apps all is doing the same features, they are becoming similar and equal - yet the content, and your profile, your identity, is owned by different corporations. It can be taken away from you at any second.
With Nostria, you own your data and you own your identity. It is portable across hundreds of apps - it can’t be taken away.
I want to be able to discover music, enjoy that music, at the same time I’m reading a feed of posts or engaging in a public or private chat. I want to be able to quickly share some banger tunes with my friends and family, in one unified experience. I hate clicking the “Share” button on my phone then having to scroll through a long list of apps - and required to remember “is that group chat on Signal or Telegram?”, “is John on Snapchat or Messenger?”.
Yes, it’s a big task to get your friends and family to move to yet another app, in this case Nostria and Nostr. Yet the benefits are greater than adopting yet another centralized social media app.
So yes, there is a lot of features, it does go against the common promoted idea of building only singularly focused apps that does one thing, and does that well. Why limit ourselves and create this mental exhaustion with data fragmented across so many different apps and services?
If this resonates with you, join Nostria.
It’s the opposite: social media overwhelms me everywhere else — Nostria actually feels the most simple thanks to its smart filters on my feed, my connections, my bookmarks… everything.
100%. I agree. I love your unique home dashboard. Keep building! 🔥🔥🔥
Thanks Derek! Yes for sure, I’m alone working on this so that limits the quality in certain areas. I try to focus on what user feedback I get, ensuring people are happy with the features they use. Eventually some features will go away, and some have been removed alredy.
I just love the experience of having a single app where I can get my social interactions done. It’s magical sometimes the experience you get when it’s all in the same app.
i love a plethora of features, but many people struggle to use them all if there’s too many features. pros and cons with each approach i guess. it’s hard to make them all equally good.