Social media users swarm to Hive as Twitter fallout continues

In the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, users have been fleeing to other social apps like open source microblogging platform Mastodon and niche communities like CounterSocial. 

Now, another social app called Hive is seeing a boost in sign-ups in response to the upheaval at Twitter. The app today finds itself in the top 20 on the U.S. App Store after seeing a surge of new interest over the weekend as the situation at Twitter continues to evolve.

According to data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower, around 214,000 of Hive’s total 733,000 lifetime installs across iOS and Android came in the last 30 days alone. Of note, Hive seems to have gained the attention of those outside the U.S. — its non-U.S. installs account for around 86% of Hive’s total downloads, Sensor Tower said.

And while there are plenty of alternatives to Twitter, it can’t hurt that Hive arguably comes closest to replicating the troubled social network’s functionality.

You can follow topics like tech and movies; share text, images, GIFs and even polls; click on hashtags to discover similar content; and restrict who can comment on your posts. Users can also like, comment and re-share posts as is the norm on many social networks.

Nor is it just Twitter that Hive is emulating. Borrowing from the Instagram Explore page, Hive features a photo grid related to the topics you’re following. And it gets old-school with a feature plucked straight from MySpace. For example, there’s the option to add a song to your profile page by connecting your Spotify or Apple Music account.

There are also some new elements sprinkled in, such as the ability to display your zodiac sign on your profile.