9 New Social Media Platforms

Substack Leads The Way

by Illana Freeman | TechChurn Staff Writer

February 11, 2025

From Bluesky to Substack Notes, there is a new wave of social networks offering something new and different. Here's a curated list of 9 new social networks to know in 2025

Let's take a look!

1. Substack Notes

Website: https://substack.com/notes

Released: April 2023

HQ: San Francisco, California

Users: Not publicly disclosed

Funding: $89.4 million

Description: Substack Notes is a social media feature built on top of a newsletter publishing platform with over 35 million active subscriptions (including 3 million paid). Similar to the X/Twitter experience, Substack Notes allows users to post short-form content.

2. Bluesky

Website: https://bsky.app/

Released: February 2023

HQ: Seattle, Washington

Users: 25 million

Funding: $23 million

Description: Bluesky is text-based social media platform, considered as an alternative to X/Twitter. Posts shared on the platform have a limit of 300 words and can include pictures.

3. Noplace

Website: https://www.thenoplace.com/

Released: July 2024

HQ: San Francisco, California

Users: No data available

Funding: $19 million

Description: Noplace is a new social media platform aimed at a Gen Z audience. Referred to as a "mashup of Twitter and Myspace for Gen Z", it's a colorful social app focused on text updates. Users can create customized profiles (change background colors, add tags) and find new friends based on common interests. App experience offers 2 feeds, one global feed which is the same for everyone on the app, and another personalized with friends only.

4. Lapse

Website: https://www.lapse.com/

Released: July 2022

HQ: London, United Kingdom

Users: Not publicly disclosed

Funding $42.4 million

Description: Lapse positions itself as an "app that turns your iPhone into a disposable camera". When taking a picture, users have to wait 1 to 3 hours for photos to "develop in the darkroom", a filter like a vintage look is automatically added. Once pictures are taken, photos can be shared with friends or added to "journals". Lapse hit 1.3 million downloads worldwide as of October 2024.

5. BeReal

Website: https://bereal.com

Released: January 2020

HQ: Paris, France

Users: 25 million

Funding: Acquired

Description: BeReal works as a photo-sharing app, allowing user's to post one unfiltered photo per day to show their activities to their followers. The app alerts users randomly during the day to post a picture in 2 minutes. 12% of young adults ages 18 to 29 in the US report using BeReal.

6. Ten Ten

Website: https://tentnen.app/

Released: September 2022

HQ: Paris, France

Users: No data available

Funding: $38.s million

Description: TenTen is a walkie-talkie app designed for teen audiences to send voice messages to their close friends. Ten Ten hit 6 million downloads on Google Play in 6 months since its app release (its Android app was released in January 2024)

7. Airchat

Website: https://www.air.chat/

Released: April 2024

HQ: Los Angeles, California

Users: Not publicly disclosed

Funding: Undisclosed

Description: Airchat is an audio social network encouraging users to "just talk". Described as a combination of "X/Twitter and Clubhouse", instead of a text-based format, users share voice notes and the app automatically transcribes recordings. On Airchat, the feed consists of a combination of text and audio snippets.

8. Yik Yak

Website: https://yikyak.com/

Released: August 2021

HQ: United States

Users: Not publicly disclosed

Funding: $75 million

Description: Yik Yak is a pseudonymous social media platform, popular with college students. The app is designed for location-specific sharing, enabling users to share massages, referred to a "yaks," to anyone withing a five-mile radius. Yik Yak had over 3.5 million iOS downloads since 2021.

9. Fizz

Website: https://fizzsocial.app/

Released: January 2021

HQ: Palto Alto, California

Users: Not publicly disclosed

Funding: 41.5 million

Description: Fizz is an anonymous social network for college students. The network allows users to join private school communities for communication where they can share posts anonymously. On top of social networking, Fizz offers an online marketplace integrated into the app to sell and buy items among student on the campus. According to the startup, 50,000 listings were posted on the marketplace to date.

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Thanks for dropping by!

— Illana