In the Next Era of Social, Build Rituals, Not Habits

Can ritual social apps be big, or are they little social? It’s more a question of how big any emerging social apps can become now; very few will ever reach the scale of a Facebook or TikTok or maybe even a Twitter. It’ll depend on format, graph structure, network effects, and, of course, timing. But you could argue that big social will always have ... See more

In a give-to-get model, you have to create to be able to consume. Why is this good? The canonical 90/9/1 rule of big social says 90% of users lurk, 9% contribute a little, and 1% a lot. Give-to-get means every active user contributes. It’s a mechanic that encourages presence and participation—something core to ritual apps... BeReal makes you post b... See more

Bounded notifications: BeReal does this well—users know to expect just one notification per day that prompts them to share. More broadly, “once daily” or weekly apps such as Lobby reliably limit the number of notifications sent per time period. Contrast this with habitual social apps that send seemingly unlimited notifications based on a complex, o... See more

Limited supply: Wordle’s single puzzle a day is refreshing. It feels low commitment, and you get a sense of accomplishment from “completing” a defined task. You also can’t binge and get bored of the format or burn out from overexposure in a short period of time.

Some things feel different, though—taking a few moments out of my day to play Wordle or post to BeReal. I do these consciously and attentively, as daily rituals, and I’m optimistic that social products can foster rituals, not just habits. Ritual social apps aim to create regular, purposeful moments, even if small ones; they’re at their best as a mi... See more

Big social—my moniker for the collective of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube—is emblematic of what I call habitual social. Habitual social apps depend on having a large daily user base, usually measured as daily active users, or DAUs. The more time each user spends, the happier the platform.