What is Hive? Social media app goes viral overnight

3 February 2021, 12:08

Chloe Bailey doing the Silhouette Challenge

By Katie Louise Smith

Hive is like if Instagram and Twitter had a baby that lets you monetise your content as soon as you sign up.

Another social media platform? Oh, go on then. If you've been on Twitter over the past 24 hours, you may have seen people talking – and posting memes – about Hive Social.

Hive isn't actually a 'new' app, although people do seem to have just discovered it and are now flocking to sign up for a profile. According to Hive's Twitter account, over 130,00 users joined the app overnight (Feb 3) causing the servers to crash. It's free to download on the App Store, but is currently not available for Android users.

So, what is it? Why is everyone so desperate to grab a profile? Here's what you need to know about Hive, the 'alternative' to Instagram that lets everyone monetise their content.

What is the Hive social media app?

Hive was created in October 2019 by CEO Kassandra, who goes by @honeyxmua on Twitter. She also runs the official Hive Twitter account herself.

In an interview with Life&Style, Kassandra explained that the app is “oriented [around] the user experience through a chronological order feed that maximizes content engagement.”

She continued: “HIVE is really a place where everyone is welcome, so we want to attract everyone from all communities — the everyday person to bloggers for travel, food, beauty, cars, etc., to small businesses and big brands. Whatever your interests are —  if they fall within our Community Guidelines designed to keep HIVE safe and respectful — you’ll have a space with us.”

In terms of what Hive actually does? Well, it looks a bit like Instagram, with an explore page that lets you check out the latest featured posts and trending posts. You can also browse through different areas of interest, including memes, beauty, cars, food, anime, LGBTQ+ and pets.

On your profile, there's two columns: One for photos and one for text posts. It's basically like having your Instagram feed and your Twitter feed on one app. You can like, reply and repost any image or text post from another account, too. It also has a...wait for it... CHRONOLOGICAL timeline.

And for those that long for the Good Ol' MySpace Days™, Hive also lets you add music to your profile. (According to Distractify, the first song is free, the others will cost you $0.99.)

The most exciting thing about Hive is that it lets users monetise their accounts as soon as they sign up, something that Instagram does not allow smaller accounts to do.

As Her Paper Route reports, you can post clickable links anywhere within your content (including in captions and comments), which is famously impossible to do on Instagram unless you have 10k followers and access to the Instagram Story 'swipe up'. Naturally, that feature is drawing a lot of small business owners and aspiring influencers to the platform.

So, will you be joining Hive?