Hello – A New Interest Based Social Networking App
Our very first introduction to social media started with Orkut. It was probably the first and the only social media platform to find and connect with friends before Facebook came. Orkut provided us with a virtual life with people we weren’t able to meet for real. People were very much invested in it, but after social media platforms like Facebook were introduced and gained more popularity, Orkut eventually died 30th September, 2014.
Founder of Orkut beings Hello to India
The creator of Orkut has looked at the whole Facebook fiasco as an opportunity to get the ex-users invested again, but this time they have launched an application named Hello. People were already starting to shift their focus from Facebook to Instagram and Twitter in the last two years. Now they have got one more social application to keep up with and get over Facebook.
Interest-based communities
According to Orkut Buyukkokten, owner and creator of Orkut, in the last few years, social media has isolated people rather than bringing them together and forming meaningful connections between like-minded and similar people. But Hello is designed around communities and individuals that are interest-based, where you can easily connect with people who have the same interests and likes as you have. Hello aims at creating positive, authentic, and meaningful connections that can sustain.
Hello is all about your passions
Hello allows you to express your passion and explore new ones. You can choose from over more than 100 different personas and create communities that show who you really are. In this process of discovering a new persona, you might just uncover a new person. With this app, it will be easy to immerse yourself in content that is relevant to your interests. You can either create or join communities that match your interests. You can filter your folio to focus on a single passion.
Hello makes it easy to connect with people who share you passions. Hello is full of people who have similar interest as yours. You can invite your old friends and make new ones too. It allows you to reach out to an audience that understands you better. It also brings with itself a number of games to immerse yourself in. You can compete with your friends and keep a track of what levels you have reached. You can also interact with the community to unlock achievements, reach milestones and earn reward points.
Main features of Hello
- Personas & Communities: It offers you personas and user-created communities which are focused on a particular passion.
- Folio: Your folio is a personalized feed of content which is relevant to the persona you have chosen.
- Potentials: Potentials are those people who Hello would like to introduce you to. This selection and suggestion are done on the basis of your persona, location and personality.
- Connections: It comes with a direct messaging feature that helps you create more meaningful connections. This direct messaging service includes photos, gifts, and unique expression.
- Leaderboards: The leaderboard shows the interactions your contributions have generated. The more interactions you are able to generate, the more likely you will become a persona leader.
- Milestones: It lets you add layers of fun to your social connections when you reach milestones and unlock rewards.
Built on love
Orkut was made with the goal to help bring people together based on their common interests. It was a vision that changed how the world interacts. It has its headquarters in San Francisco while its development office is situated in Mountain View, California. The company has grown to a team of 20. It is said to be the first social network to be built on loves, instead of likes. Hello makes it easy for you to connect with people who share your passions. The owner of Hello wants it to be a community where everyone feels welcomed and included, and nobody feels judged.
Now available for both iOS and Android
Hello was first started in Brazil in July 2016. In India, about 35,000 people were a part of the beta testing of the application Hello. Orkut had a huge user-base in India, and the founder of Orkut is hoping that Indians would love Hello the same way they loved Orkut. When you sign up in Hello, you are asked about five things that you are passionate about. It then gives you recommendations that are non-intrusive. The owner of Hello also said that no user information is shared with third-party apps on Hello. Hello is available for both iOS and Android. You can check if the app is available in your country.
Dhruvil is a Writer & Marketeer for Nimblechapps, joined in December 2014, based out of Sydney, Australia. He has worked briefly as a Branding and Digital Marketing Manager before moving to Australia. At Nimblechapps, he worked on Social Media Marketing, Branding, Email Marketing and Blogging. Dhruvil studies Business at University of Western Sydney, and also handles Operations for the company in Australia.