Social networks are still popular, but younger people prefer apps like Genevawhich allows you to connect with friends and groups online in a more private and engaging way, building communities that share specific interests.
Content creators and influencers are also increasingly fascinated by applications that allow you to interact in thematic rooms in order to create real communities with followers.
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Gen Z reshapes the app universe
The app world is in constant turmoil and the preferences of Gen Z, that is, young people between 15-25 years old, are changing the scenario. In this age group, on the whole, tends to shrink the use of social media. But at the same time new needs emerge that lead to a preference for the use of apps and platforms with which one is able to create more reserved environments and make new friends through organized groups on a city scale. The same rise of BeRealan application that has climbed in a short space of time with a record number of downloads, signals the need for free yourself from the social frenzy, from stressand the constraints imposed by more traditional platforms, such as Instagram.
Moreover, the pandemic has favored by forcing young people to stay at home the growth of online communities that have flourished on the Internet also to escape and stay away from unbearable phenomena of bullying, hatred and harassment perpetrated on social networks.
How Geneva works
And it is on this background that Geneva’s popularity has grown. It is an app founded in 2019 in New York and which officially debuted in 2021, available in iOS, Android and on PC. In addition to the USA, the platform can be accessed from several other countries (such as France, Spain, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Yemen and Italia).
Geneva, presented as a space with rules for being free from trolls and botswithout the hassle of likes and algorithm conditioning, it is an all-in-one communication app for groups, clubs and communities.
Users, once registered with name and surname by registering with your mobile number (and not by email), they can create a house, which must be assigned a name and in which it is possible to chat with participants both publicly and privately (anyone can discover it, but approval is required to participate). The House it can also be secretand in this case only invited users can find it and access the discussion.
Within each house it is possible to create rooms for chat, forum, audio or video conversation only and for live streaming broadcasts aimed at a particular audience, which respond to the different needs of the user.
The logic that inspires this conformation is to internally reproduce the characteristic functions of other applications that attract the interest and attention of young people. So the chats correspond to GroupMe groups or Slack channels, the video rooms are shot on the FaceTime and Zoom line, and the live stream refers to Instagram Live.
With the app, you can also send direct messages and set up scheduled events with related invitations. Like on Twitter, users can mention friends with an at sign followed by a username, share files, run polls, and even use emojis.
To obviate the risks of anonymity, Chosen by Gen Z to escape online surveillance practices and non-transparent identities, with the Gates function it is possible to filter access to the home of new members to verify their eligibility. The most trusted are also allowed to share house keys: it means empower them to control who does whatthat is, invite new friends, create virtual rooms and moderate messages.
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Creators and influencers like it
Geneva is liked by a lot of young people, but she managed to also earn the favor of creators and influencers. Who see the app as an opportunity to build more direct and interactive relationships with followers. For example, Kate Glavan and Emma Roepke, 23-year-old friends from New York and authors of the podcast Sea moss girlies, have opened a house on Geneva where they exchange tips on music and TV shows with many other members of their community and share very personal stories. of suffered experiences. Conversations and discussions are long, passionate, more informal and less set and conditioned by likes or polluted by toxic and violent content, and often the people who participate find themselves meeting offline.
Geneva is most successful among Gen Z girls and conquered TikTok stars like Belle Perez and Nina Haines24-year-old from Brooklyn who runs a BookTok community house for sapphic women and non-binary identities.
The ability of communities to strengthen ties with users is also starting to appeal to companies, so much so that some brands have already activated on Geneva: Nadya Okamoto, influencer on TikTok and co-founder of August, a startup of products for the menstrual cycle, has on its side a community of 3 thousand people who have been decisive for the success of his company. The posts posted on Geneva, he explained Serena Kerrigan, entrepreneur and content creatorallow for immediate feedback, exploiting which loyalty with the public and one’s own market activity is better defined.
However, the development of this more commercial strand of the app is not the intent of the founder, Justin Hauser: his aspiration is to contribute to a back to the origins of the Internet as a means of connecting people, which Geneva could help rediscover.