Now that Google is sticking the fork in its Google Plus social media platform, there is a huge swath of Google+ users who are searching for a new social media home. Many users aren’t at all keen on Facebook or Twitter, so they’ve been hunting for alternatives. Some have ended up at pluspora; some are migrating to Mastodon, and others to Friendica. But a large number have found a place they believe could be what they once had in Google Plus: MeWe.
MeWe is a new social media platform that is supposedly engineered with “privacy-by-design.” In the words of the company:
MeWe turns the table on Facebook and other social media companies with a revolutionary service that emphasizes privacy and social sharing where people can be their true, uncensored selves. No Ads. No Spyware. No BS. MeWe members are #Not4Sale and enjoy the protection of MeWe’s Privacy Bill Of Rights.
MeWe feels very much like a combination of Google Plus and Facebook, and I’ve been using it for nearly two days now. The community is bustling with activity, and people are engaging, much like the old Vic Gundotra Google Plus days. Here’s a rundown of some of MeWe’s key features:
- My Cloud – Seamlessly organize all your content in My Cloud; it’s your personal cloud. My Cloud offers an interactive dashboard for you to control everything you’ve posted or shared – making it simple to delete or reshare.
- Unique profiles – Be yourself, free from any tracking and spying. Customize your profile for every group you create or join.
- Voice integration (on any or all content) – Post pictures, videos, or documents and include a voice message. Respond to a shared post or chat. MeWe’s voice integration works for you and your contacts throughout the entire platform.
- Universal tagging – This is a new, convenient way to sort and organize all the content you receive and share, making it easy to find everything, anytime.
- Enhanced permission control (patent issued) – Manage permissions on a granular level and decide exactly who sees what. You can also remove yourself from the search directory, make yourself invisible to other members online, and much more.
- Much More – join MeWe today and take a look inside! MeWe is the next-gen social networking experience designed for you to have fun, stay in touch, collaborate, organize, and simplify.
But not everything is peaches and creme at MeWe either. If you are Looking for more alternatives, you might research others on Top Alternative’s website. Many Google Plus users are actively letting MeWe developers know about essential functions or features they’d like to see. The nice thing is, the developers are listening and responsive. Just a few of the things some Google Plus users have suggested MeWe incorporate or use from their old platform are:
- Circles – Allowing users to place contacts into circles of their choosing so they can share only with those contacts.
- Collections – Allowing users to create Collections that others can subsribe to at their will.
- Public posting – Allowing users to post public for all MeWe users to see that particular post. (Developers have said this feature is coming soon)
- URL’s – Clean up URL’s, formatting them to look better.
- Cross-posting – Ability to cross-post to Twitter and perhaps Facebook.
- Android app improvements –
- Ability to share photos from Android menu to MeWe
- Ability to use Google Photos in comments and new posts
- Ability to use GBoard GIF sharing feature in comments
- Notifications – Group notifications together
- Hashtag following – Ability to follow hashtags, which requires public posting to be active.
- Emoji overload – Emoji responses litter the user interface, get rid of them.
- User Experience –
- Themes, Dark Mode, and others would be amazing
- Better contrast for the light grey on white
- Better contrast for read notifcations
- Sharing of Contact groups
- Post pictures via linking
- Code formatting (don’t ignore whitespace)
- Mutable threads
- Report/mute/block posts
Jason Hardy is one of the developers for MeWe, and he made a post indicating some recent improvements are coming. Those are listed below.
MeWe Pages – These will go live later this month! This will allow you to create business and fan pages on MeWe where you can make open posts for all of MeWe to see and share.
Public Posts – We’re already working on these and they will go live soon. On each of your timeline posts you’ll get to decide if you want it so just your contacts can see the post or if you want everyone on MeWe to be able to see the post.
Sharing – I know right now it works more like a copy than a share. When public posts roll out, sharing will be fixed so it gives credit to the original poster.
We’re sure there will be more improvements to come for MeWe as Google Plus users continue to migrate over. For now, it’s the best alternative I’ve found to Google Plus in terms of real social interaction among like-minded people. Let’s hope the developers can roll with this recent flood of refugees and make MeWe the best it can be.
Are you a Google Plus user who has moved to MeWe? How do you like it? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Twitter, Facebook and soon to come…MeWe!
Last Updated on February 10, 2021.
