BEST 9 SOCIAL NETWORKING APPS

    1 – Facebook

This is easily the largest social networking site in the world and one of the most widely used. And, Facebook was perhaps the first that surpassed the landmark of 1 billion user accounts.

Apart from the ability to network with friends and relatives, you can also access different Facebook apps to sell online and you can even market or promote your business, brand and products by using paid Facebook ads.

Recently Facebook has lost the trust of millions of its users by allowing 3rd parties to access over 87 million users’ personal data. This is a massive breech of trust and has created a feeling of unrest amongst the social media platform’s audience. So much so that there is now a #deletefacebook campaign where people are completely removing themselves from Facebook and using other networks instead. If you’re concerned about what Facebook is doing with your data, then why not check out my guide on alternatives to Facebook, and see if there’s a better place for you to interact with family and friends.

Number of active users per month: 1.59 billion approximately

2 – WhatsApp

Despite having been acquired by Facebook in 2014, this instant messaging platform exists as an independent entity.

It arrived on the scene much later than Facebook, but has been able to capture the imagination of millions of people across the world by giving them the ability to communicate and share instantly with individuals and groups. The WhatsApp call feature is just the icing on the cake!

Number of active users per month: 1 billion approximately

3- QQ

Tencent QQ (more popularly known as QQ) is an instant messaging (chat-based) social media platform. It became international (with more than 80 countries using it), after it was launched in China.

It can be used to stay in touch with friends through texts, video calls and voice chats. It even has a built-in translator to translate your chats. To find out more, head over to our Chinese Social Media stats page.

Number of active users per month: 853 million approximately

4 – WeChat

This is an all-in-one communications app for messaging and calling (similar to WhatsApp) that enables you to connect with the people of your choice. It was also developed by Tencent in China and can easily work alongside QQ. As per the BI intelligence report, the number of WeChat users are fast catching up with the number of WhatsApp users.

Related article: WeChat keyboard shortcuts

Number of active users per month: 697 million approximately

5 – QZone

Like QQ and WeChat, QZone is yet another social networking service developed by Tencent. It enables you to share photos, watch videos, listen to songs, write blogs, maintain diaries and so on. It also empowers you to choose the accessories and customize the look and feel of your QZone webpages.

Number of active users per month: 640 million approximately

6 – Tumblr

Having been owned by Yahoo since 2013, Tumblr serves as a social media cum micro blogging platform that can be used to find and follow things that you like. You can also use it to post anything, including multimedia, to a short-form blog. Moreover, it gives you the flexibility to customize almost everything.

Number of active users per month: 555 million approximately

7 – Instagram

Instagram was launched as a unique social networking platform that was completely based on sharing photos and videos. This photo sharing social networking app thus enables you to capture the best moments of your life, with your phone’s camera or any other camera, and convert them into works of art.

This is possible because Instagram allows you to apply multiple filters to your photos and you can easily post them to other popular social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. It is now part of the Facebook empire. Learn how to grow your Instagram audience.

Read more on Instagram Tools to help you increase social engagement and audience numbers.

Number of active users per month: 400 million approximately

8 – Twitter

This social networking site enables you to post short text messages (called tweets), containing a limited number of characters (up to 280), to convey your message to the world. With the growing craze for online shopping, Twitter also makes it possible to promote your businesses and even shop directly through tweets. Learn how to create the perfect Twitter profile.

Number of active users per month: 320 million approximately

9 – Google+ ( No Longer Available )

Owned by the tech giant Alphabet (Google), this interest-based social networking platform enables you to stay in touch with people by sharing messages, photos, videos, useful links to sites and so on. It also extends support for video conferencing through Hangouts and allows businesses to promote their brands and products through Google+ business pages.

10 best free Android games

10 best free Android games available right now!

We all know that free Android games aren’t always free these days, but many of them are very close if you have a little patience. Most free to play bottlenecks occur when players get impatient and waiting the game out can usually get around those pitfalls. What we have here are the best free Android games that you should be able to play comfortably without engaging in too many in-app purchases and we hope you enjoy them! If you want free Android games with no in-app purchases, we have that linked just below. Let’s get started. 

1.   Another Eden

2.   Alto’s Odyssey

3.   Asphalt 9: Legends

4.   Brawl Stars

5.   Call of Duty: Mobile

6.   Critical Ops

7.   EA Sports games

8.   Final Fantasy Brave Exvius

9.   MADFINGER Games

10.   PUBG Mobile

9. 
   

Another EdenPrice: Free to playAnother Eden is an interesting mobile JRPG. It has the same writer as Chrono Trigger along with the same composer. The interesting part is how many elements of Chrono Trigger’s story end up in this game. It has time travel to various eras in history and there are some throwbacks to smaller scenes from Chrono Trigger. The game itself is a step above your standard mobile RPG. You roam around the game world with your companions instead of accepting missions like most. However, there are still gacha elements and simplified battle mechanics. There is no energy so you can play as much as you want to. However, our big gripe is the lack of Google Play Games cloud saving. It was a surprise hit of early 2019 and an easy shoo-in for a list like this. We do recommend preparing in advance if you trade in your phone and need to backup your data.

Alto’s OdysseyPrice: Free to play
Alto’s Odyssey is a natural choice for a free Android game. It features simple mechanics, gorgeous graphics, and a relaxing style. Players ski down a hill while avoiding obstacles and making massive jumps. There are also items to collect that can be traded in for various customization options. The game relies heavily on its wallpaper-worthy graphics. They are simple, but effective and the dark, gradient colors add a good atmosphere for the game. It’s completely free to download and play with some limited ads. There are in-app purchases, but they are all for customization stuff so it’s entirely optional and it doesn’t affect game play. It’s kid friendly and fun. Noodlecake Studios also does Alto’s Adventure and Farm Punks, two more games that could easily make this list.

Asphalt 9: LegendsPrice: Free to playThe Asphalt franchise has some of mobile’s most popular racing games. Asphalt 8: Airborne and Asphalt Xtreme were the big ones in the series. However, Asphalt 9: Legends came out in July 2018. This is the most recent game in the series now. It includes 50 cars, a bunch of challenges, and a bunch of content to play with. That includes online multiplayer, single player stuff, and more. It uses an auto-go mechanism so you can’t control your acceleration. That has angered some players. The graphics are good and there are social elements as well. It’s a freemium game. Thus, the online competitive aspect may be skewed a bit. However, the single player stuff is classically good arcade racing. You can also skip in-app purchases with extra grinding. It’s tedious but entirely doable.

Brawl Stars

Price: Free to play
Brawl Stars is Supercell’s latest hit game. It’s a brawler with online multiplayer elements as well as some MOBA elements. Players drop into a game with a couple of teammates, brawl with opponents, and try to win. There are a few game modes, including a straight brawl mode, a mode where you collect crystals, a heist mode where you steal the opponent’s treasure, and a bounty mode where you beat specific opponents on a team. It feels like a Supercell game and that’s mostly a good thing. Supercell also makes Clash Royale, Clash of Clans, and Boom Beach. All of those could also easily go on a list like this if you like auto battlers (Clash Royale) or kingdom builder strategy games (Clash of Clans and Boom Beach).

Call of Duty: MobilePrice: Free to play
Call of Duty: Mobile is the latest game on this list. We usually wait a bit to see how a game plays out, but this one is so intensely popular and so intensely good that we had to add it basically immediately. The game includes classic online FPS PvP like any Call of Duty. However, it also includes a 100-player battle royale mode similar to PUBG Mobile and Fortnite. That puts it in a rare category of a good regular FPS game like Critical Ops as well as a good battle royale like PUBG Mobile. The game has in-app purchases, but they seem to be solely for cosmetic gear and a good amount of it is available as in-game rewards. The game play is good and people seem to really like this one. It’s relatively new so there are some bugs, but those should be ironed out over time.

Critical OpsPrice: Free to playCritical Ops is among the newer generation of first person shooters and it’s one of the best. In this title, you’ll battle terrorists in a variety of urban-oriented levels or you can play as the terrorists if you want to. It has a strong online multiplayer community where you can play with your friends as well. It’s still a work in progress, but it seems to hit all the right marks and it’s updated frequently. If you’d like a first person shooter that’s completely free, NOVA 3: Freedom Edition is quite good as well. They’re both free Android games worth checking out.

EA Sports gamesPrice: Free to play
EA has the market cornered on sports games. They are the only developer with yearly launches for most sports, including their Madden NFL Overdrive game, FIFA Soccer, NBA Live Mobile, EA Sports UFC, and others. These games all have very similar elements. You can play the actual sport and there is a sim mechanic in all of these games. The graphics are usually pretty decent and the controls are generally good. However, EA sports games have heavy freemium elements. That is a frequent frustration for many players and it makes it difficult to recommend EA in general. Unfortunately, EA is the only developer that makes games for most sports so that makes them the best by default. There are a few soccer games (Dream League Soccer) and Motorsport (Motorsport Manager Mobile 3) that are really good too. EA also has some popular freemium games like Star Wars: Galaxy of Heros that people seem to really like.

Final Fantasy Brave ExviusPrice: Free to play
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is perhaps the best Final Fantasy-themed freemium game out there. It features tons of elements from the original games, including actual town and dungeon explorations, hidden treasures, secret dungeons, and tons of lore. The game play is simple to learn but you’ll need to think critically in order to beat bosses and hard opponents. You’re frequently rewarded for logging in daily and additional missions, quests, and activities helps keep the game fresh. This is about as good as it gets for free to play titles. Square Enix launched a spiritual successor, War of the Visions: FFBE in early 2020 and it’s an excellent strategy RPG game that takes place in the same universe. 

MADFINGER Games (Dead Trigger series, UNKILLED, Shadowgun series)

Price: Free to play
 MADFINGER Games is one of the best mobile game developers for first person shooters. Their list of titles includes heavy hitters like the Shadowgun series (including their latest release, Shadowgun Legends), the Dead Trigger series (two games), and UNKILLED. Dead Trigger and UNKILLED are a family of zombie shooters with tons of missions, some online PvP content, and tons of stuff to do. Shadowgun is a sci-fi shooter series with a campaign, online PvP, and more. Most of the main games are freemium. They are all extremely good games despite that, though. The developer’s latest title, Shadowgun: War Games, is available for pre-registration on Google Play now.

PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile LitePrice: Free to playPUBG Mobile hasn’t been out globally for long. However, it’s already one of the most popular mobile shooters available. It features a 100-player battle royale on a small island. Players collect gear, weapons, and vehicles on the island and battle it out. The winner is the last person standing. It also includes mechanics like a shrinking play area to keep games from going too long as well as an expanding list of content, cross-overs, and customization items. There is also a Lite version of PUBG Mobile with lighter graphics, fewer players per match, and more. It’s only available for lower end devices, though. 

# what to do in our life

7 Ways to Find the Answer to "What Should I Do With My Life?"

1. Talk to People

Meet or call at least 50 people. They can be your friends, relatives, friends of friends/references. Call them up, schedule a meeting, go see them and interact with them on what they are doing. Don’t expect anything, don’t ask them to find you a job, don’t ask them to give you a job. Just talk and meet and have a normal conversation.

You’d be surprised at how much you can learn just listening to other people talk. OK, yes, sometimes you might not learn much more than how badly traffic was backed up during rush hour. But other times, if you listen (and listen between the lines), you’ll get insight into people’s motivations, hopes, dreams, and ambitions. And when you piece all that together, you can learn how others got to where they are today—and if that’s a path you want to be on, too. (Try these informational interview questions if you have no idea where to start.)

2. Get Started

My suggestion is to do something. Even if it isn’t quite the right thing, it is nevertheless movement that can give you an opportunity to experience. You can spend a lot of time taking tests and getting evaluations for what you might be suited for; ideas always sound good on paper. But words don’t match experience, so acting on something is your best choice.

Regardless of what you generally want to do, it never hurts to start building something. Really anything. Start creating a portfolio, launch a career newsletter, or learn how Periscope works. There are so many things you can do for your career—even if you don’t know what you want to do. And, just like the previous advice, the actual act of doing will help further clarify what paths you might want to be on, and which ones you should rule out.

3. Gather Inspiration From Others

Walk into your local bookshop and go straight to the autobiography section. Buy three books from across different industries, societies, and cultures. Focus on biographies that document great and successful people's early lives, before they were great. Read them before bed. Wake up in the morning and write down 10 things you could do differently that day. Do some of them. Do this the next day. And then do it again.

No matter what you do, you probably want to be successful at it. So what better way to get started than by learning how others reached their goals? Keep in mind as you’re reading that these people weren’t born knowing what they wanted to do either. (Get more inspiration from this list of 30 things to read, watch, listen to, and do to help you answer this age-old question.)

4. Prepare for a Long Journey

Expect that it is going to take a while and involve several iterations, or so-called “life crises” to figure it out. For most people it’s a long and often unfinished journey.

One huge misconception about figuring out what you want to do with your life is that you will have a sudden, magical moment of extreme clarity and then have your entire life planned.

In actuality, lives shift constantly, and you’ll need to regroup and reconsider your journey as you go along. So instead of being surprised when you have to make new decisions, anticipate them, and dare I say it, be excited for them.

5. Leave Your Comfort Zone

Try new things and widen your horizons. Try something you’ve always wanted to but never got around to, something that scares you, something that is very different from what you normally do.

Maybe you don’t know what you want to do because you haven’t tried what you’re meant to do yet. And you won’t know if that is true or not until you get out there and start ruling things out.

Seriously, it’s easy to get into a rut and feel like you have no options besides what you are you doing right now. However, by taking a step outside your comfort zone, you might be surprised by how much you end up liking something that you never in a million years imagined you would.

6. Be Okay With Failing

Learn the skills that are needed to accomplish what you want to achieve. Most of us fail in [our] first attempt. We keep failing and learning and growing. [The] point to be noted is that this is the time to learn, experiment, grow, and fail without any substantial damage.

Nothing will slow you down more in your quest to figure out what to do with your life than being afraid of failure. Yes, you’ve heard this before—but that’s because it’s true. You won’t ever be able to nail down what makes you happy if you rule everything out because it sounds hard.

7. Enjoy Not Knowing

Enjoy the meanderings, the soul-searching, the loves lost, the time wasted. All of it will add up to a complex and very unique ‘you.’ The more you appreciate right now, the more the future will become a fantastic reality. Don’t pressure yourself to be in the future.