Twitter, a microblogging site, doubled its characters from 140 to 280 to accommodate more text. Founded back in 2006, it remains among the top social media platform with high engagement rates. Over 500 million tweets are sent every on the platform by 186 million daily active users.

Currently, Twitter has 340 million active users, with 1 in 5 of all the users being adults. Research indicates that  71% of Twitter users go to the platform to get their news.

If you are considering how to create an app like Twitter for free, stick to the end.

What is a Twitter app?

A social networking service and American microblogging where users interact by sending Short Messages Services (SMS) known as tweets.

In India, 86% of the Twitter audience are male, ranking the country third largest in the male-to-female ratio.

The main features of the Twitter app include;

• Tweets – This is the content containing up to a maximum of 290 characters. They are usually written in an informal form and sometimes grammatically wrong. The main aim is to communicate.

• Adding and the following content – You can follow accounts or hashtags, which will indicate the content that appears on your newsfeed.

• Verified accounts – These are accounts with the blue badges on them. To get verified for your account, follow this guide.

• Twitter polls – Here, users ask questions, and you can curate industry-related discussions with polls on Twitter. There are other ways a business can use Twitter polls.

• Streaming video –  Twitter video length limit in 2020 is now at 2 minutes and 20 seconds.

A new feature rolled called ‘fleets’ was launched by Twitter that allows your tweets to disappear after 24 hours. It’s more like the Stories for Instagram.

The director of design Joshua Harris said;

“The main reason for this is that it creates a lower-pressure way for people to join the conversation,”

How to make an app like Twitter?

You want to have your community in a private Twitter app and don’t know where to start?

Here are the key factors to consider before you begin your app development;

1. Data types

What will be the primary main type of content? You can start with the text, then later add audio, photos, and videos.

2. Data source integration

Your source of beginner data is essential. This can be from your Twitter account or one from a friend to help you get started.

3. User interaction

This factor is key to the growth and scaling of the app. How will users engage on the platform? You add features like comments, Likes, Share, and save. Allow the app to send push notifications and SMS notifications if possible.

4. User interaction

How does a new user get started with your Twitter app? Create a registration process for new users, including a verification process like emails.

5. In-app communication

User-to-user interaction is essential in growing the audience of your  Twitter app. Enable users to chat and send direct messages to each other within the application.

6. Geolocation

Can users tag location in their content? Use Google APIs to enable the user to share their location.

7. Payment integration

In the event you are thinking of monetizing the Twitter app, add some payment integrations.

8. Security

Data privacy is critical. Users want to know their data won’t be stolen. Have some necessary end-to-end encryption and add GDPR- ready solutions.

The five-step process to building a Twitter app

1. Create a strategy for your Twitter app

Write down a structured plan for the Twitter design you want to be built. What are the key features to include? What are your competitors doing, and how do you differentiate yourself to attract users fast? Establish key performance indicators to measure the success or failure of your  Twitter app.

2. Design your Twitter app workflow

The design process has these simple steps;

• Sketching –  Outline the future logic of the app and the interactions between them.

• Wireframing – This helps the development team to visualize how the Twitter app will look like after development. It also gives an overview of how it will look like for the end-to-end user.

• Prototyping- This one is for the Minimum Viable Product. You can push it to a limited audience in the test phase to get feedback on improvement.

• Design App skins – Here, we convert the wireframes into a Twitter app design and tweak where possible to provide the best UI/ UX for users.

3. Ensuring quality when developing for Android or iOS

It’s advisable to start with the Android version since 87% of the smartphone operating system market share use it. Ensure both front-end and back-end are well set up with databases, servers, storage solutions. Your team of app developers will test every stage of the development stage of the application.

4. Launching and Marketing your Twitter app

Before your Twitter app goes live, you need a promotion strategy to attract users. You can hire a digital marketing expert to help you execute marketing and advertising.

Some key metrics to measure when marketing your Twitter app;

•  Cost per Install –  You calculate this by tracking the number of installs that come from running ads. Divide the cost of ads by the number of installs.

• User engagement –  The number of actions taken by users who have installed the Twitter app. Also, consider the time spent on the app.

• Churn rate and retention – It’s measured as a proposition of users who return to the app after the first visit, while churn rate is the number of users who have stopped using the Twitter mobile app.

• Burn rate – The amount of money you spend advertising the mobile app and the monthly cost of servers.

5. Maintenance and Support

As you grow and scale, your Twitter social network will need constant maintenance and customer support.

How much does it cost to create a Twitter app?

To create any social media app, it will cost about $22,000 for the MVP platform alone. The total cost for Twitter app development may go up to $115,000, excluding a marketing specialist.

Your team will consist of the following experts:

• Project manager
• UI/UX designer
• App developer
• Digital marketing specialist

According to Indeed, a digital marketer salary per year in 2020 in the U.S alone is $58,342.

How to create a Twitter app for free?

AppsGeyser has a free app builder that you can use to create a Twitter app for free in 5 minutes or less.

Without any coding skills or software installation, we offer ready to use a template for creating your Twitter app.

Here are the simple steps to follow when building your Twitter app for free with AppsGeyser;

1. Copy and paste your Twitter URL
2. Add other social media tabs.
3. Name your app
4. Choose or upload an icon.
5. Use the keywords in the name and description to tell about features.
6. Localize the app into your home language
7. Preview your website app before building an apk file.

Conclusion

Creating a custom design app like Twitter is now easier and cheaper than hiring a whole team of app developers.

With a minimum cost, you can add custom features to your Twitter app to improve user engagement and build a community of loyal audiences.

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