Noplace is a social network that, through great virality and ingenious marketing, rose to the number one spot in the number of downloads on the Apple App Store. The application boasts a retro design that will immediately remind older generations of MySpace, which is the goal of this social network. Namely, it was originally called Nospace, but due to the threat of a lawsuit, they were forced to modify the name.

Numerous features have appealed to the younger audience (mostly Generation Z), but there are also attractive features for older and more experienced users. However, this network is not available on the web, has no desktop app, and is currently only supported for iOS.

The main motto of Tiffany Zhong, the founder of this social network, is: “Bring ‘social’ back into social media”, a statement that many will empathize with. We all remember when Facebook first started, and it was primarily a place to share news with friends, get an insight into the lives of our loved ones, and a way to connect with people we wouldn’t otherwise be able to connect with in real life.

The nature of social networks has changed since then and when we scroll through Facebook, we no longer see posts from our friends, but corporate posts, content marketing, AI-generated content of a deceptive nature, ads – and only here and there some content that is truly close to our hearts. Facebook is not the only culprit here, the same thing happens on Instagram and Twitter (X).

“Facebook 10 years ago – or Facebook when I was using it in middle school – was all around cool, life updates,” Zhong tells TechCrunch. “We don’t have that anymore, right? You can follow [friends] on Instagram, but it’s still highlights, less news.”

The main features of Noplace lead precisely in this direction, and the app design evokes the fun retro style of MySpace.

Account setup

The information required to open an account is, as usual: email address, date of birth, phone number, username; and it finally asks us about our interests, called “stars” here, which is a small homage to MySpace.

Another homage is the fact that as soon as we log on to the social network, we immediately have one friend, and that is TZ, the founder of the network. It was the same when logging in to MySpace, where when creating an account, MySpace Tom, i.e. founder Tom Anderson, was immediately added as a friend.

When signing up, if we are over 18 years old, we get the option of a “Wholesome” feed, in which content inappropriate for minors is hidden, and a “Less wholesome” feed, which has no content restrictions. If a user is under 18, they cannot even choose between those two options, the Wholesome feed is automatically set.

Profile

Once we have an account, we fill in the following fields:

• what are our current interests
• which movie or series we are currently watching
• what is our favorite dish
• what is our favorite song (which is then “embedded” on the profile and visitors can hear a clip of that song)
• what is our relationship status
• IRL field (refers to current, “In Real Life” posts)
• what’s our job
• which book are we reading.

All these items are reminiscent of MySpace, which also had sections where we could put our personal favorites and thus present ourselves and our personality.

We have the option to choose a profile theme as well, albeit with a small possibility of customization. For now, we can adjust the colors of the sections and how rounded the edges of the sections are. More customization and personalization options will be added over time.

Another link between the new and the old social network is the section “top 10 friends“. If you were a MySpace user, you’ll remember how many friendships were strengthened by that section, but equally how many were destroyed and the trauma caused as a result.

Another item that marks profiles are profile levels. We raise the profile level naturally through using the application, posting, boosting other people’s posts (the Noplace version of likes) and commenting, i.e. leaving notes under other people’s posts.

Feed

What is very interesting and one of the main promotional points of this network is its anti-algorithm feed, which shows posts of all people on the network in chronological order. This approach is reminiscent of Twitter because it acts like a forum from Roman times. Anyone can write anything and share it to the world, but we can’t interact with it or keep the post on the feed longer than it is organically possible.

In addition to that main, unfiltered feed, there is also a “friends only” feed, featuring just updates from profiles that are in our friends section.

This form of feed is something that the younger audience has been wanting for a long time; because since they use social networks, the feeds are based on the algorithm and the selection of content by the algorithm. This change was introduced by Facebook and Instagram back in 2016. Until then, their feed was also in chronological order, and this marked a shift from social media to “corporate media”, where we no longer have control over the content that is presented to us.

Notably, there are no ads on this platform, but it is funded by paid users who get small advantages in collecting levels.

Community

One of the problems currently visible in this network is completely opposite to the problems of other social networks: there is no way to connect with a community that has common interests. There are groups, but they do not allow a feed that is based on interest, but a separate feed just for that group.

This is an ailment for which a cure exists and will likely be implemented with further development of the application and the network.

Role of artificial intelligence

Tiffany Zhong has chosen a chronological feed wisely, because Gen-Z and younger generations are eager for a network that doesn’t push them content that isn’t of interest to them. But it’s also cleverly capitalized on the hype surrounding artificial intelligence, so that AI is used to create “what you’ve missed” summaries when the user has been offline for a long time.

It is also used to curate online content and recommending friends or connections, but these functions are reduced to a simple algorithm, so artificial intelligence can only help in making the right choice.

Real competition?

Given that the network is still in its infancy, it is difficult to say whether it will be the proverbial Facebook/Twitter killer. There have already been many attempts to remove these “kings” from the throne, but most of them stayed on a small audience, thus becoming a niche social network. Just think of apps like BeReal, or Lemon8, which tried to be TikTok’s counterpart to Instagram and Pinterest, or Threads, Instagram’s attempt to compete with Twitter.

Time will tell if Nospace will be an exception.