Social Media App Development
Social networking and community apps with feeds, short-form video, real-time messaging, and the moderation tools that keep them safe as they grow. We built LiLak - an Arabic-first social network live on iOS and Android since 2023 - so your platform starts from a stack already running in production.
From $15k
Starting Price
Feed + Chat + Admin
Deliverables
iOS + Android + Web
Platforms
Arabic RTL + English
Languages
Everything a social platform needs to grow
The member app and the dashboard you run it from, on one backend - in one language or several, including full right-to-left Arabic.
Sign-up, profiles, and the rule for who sees whom - an open follower graph, or discovery scoped to location and interests as on LiLak.
- Social login & Firebase auth
- Profiles & connections
- Location & interest discovery
Posts, images, and short-form video, with uploads stored and processed in the cloud so the feed never waits on media.
- Short-form video & images
- Cloud media processing
- Content sharing
Direct messaging and live events delivered over sockets, with push notifications when the app is in the background.
- Direct messaging
- Live events over sockets
- Push notifications & email
Review queues and user management from launch - app stores require it, and communities need it the moment they grow.
- Content review queues
- User & account management
- Community administration
Gamification, notifications, and deep links that bring members back to the exact post or conversation that needs them.
- Gamification
- Push & transactional email
- Deep links to posts & chats
A web dashboard to run the platform - moderation, users, campaigns, and analytics - without calling a developer.
- Platform analytics
- Notification campaigns
- No developer needed day to day
From community idea to live social app
You approve a written scope before we build, then see working software every Friday until launch.
We define your community, what members share, and the rule for who sees each post - the decision every other feature follows from.
Figma designs for the feed, profiles, and chat - right-to-left too if you need Arabic - with flows you can click through.
A Flutter app for iOS and Android on a Node.js backend: accounts, profiles, posts, and the feed - demoed every Friday.
Messaging and live events over Socket.io, push notifications, and cloud storage and processing for video and images.
The admin dashboard: moderation queues, user management, notification campaigns, and analytics.
Device testing, App Store and Google Play submission, then 45 days of free post-launch support.
Social platforms we have already shipped
LiLak is an Arabic-first social network live since 2023; BBX Connect runs member networking, chat, and events for businesses in 8+ countries.
Social Media App Development FAQs
A focused community MVP - profiles, a feed, and messaging - starts around $15K with our team. A full social platform like LiLak, with real-time chat, user-generated video, moderation tooling, deep linking, and an admin dashboard, is a larger scope that we quote as a fixed price after a free scoping call.
Decide who sees a post before anything else. LiLak scopes discovery to a member's city and specialisation instead of an open follower graph, so a merchant reaches people who can actually buy from them. We settle that model during scoping, because the feed, search, and notifications all follow from it.
Yes. On LiLak, right-to-left was a first-class layout direction from the start and English was mirrored from it. Retrofitting RTL onto a finished left-to-right app means revisiting every alignment, icon, animation, and input field - so we decide the direction before the screens are designed.
Messaging and live events run over Socket.io on a Node.js backend, with Firebase for push. We also build what surrounds the socket - reconnection, delivery while the app is in the background, and deep links that reopen the exact conversation - because a chat that drops messages is a chat nobody trusts.
Yes. App stores enforce it, and a social platform without moderation tooling becomes unshippable the moment it gets traction. LiLak launched with review queues and user management already in its admin dashboard, so growth never had to outrun safety.
That is what the admin dashboard is for: moderation, user and account management, community administration, notification campaigns, and analytics. Day-to-day operation needs no engineering, so you are not permanently dependent on whoever wrote the code.
