Create an app where your users can post, share, like, and comment, create and update their profile, find other users, and much more with our social features.
There are four screens in total associated with social features:
- Wall (Social)
- Members (Social)
- Logout (Users)
- My Profile (Users)
In this article, we will go through each one of these screens and explain how to set up and use them.
Wall
Social Wall is a place where users can post textual posts, links, and photos, where they can like and comment on other users’ posts and much more. To add a Social Wall to your app, go to Screens → press + button → search Social → hover with your pointer over Social card → select Wall.
Once the social wall is added as one of the screens of your app, go to Settings → Social (Extensions settings) to configure this feature.
- Max status length – decide on the maximum number of characters a post on your social wall can have
- Enable photo attachments – enable this option if you want your users to be able to upload posts and comments with photo attachments
- Enable comments – enable this option if you’d like your users to be able to comment on posts from your social wall
- Enable interactions – enable this option if you’d want your user to be able to like posts on your social wall
By default, all of these options are enabled once the wall is added and the maximum status length is set to 140 characters.
Once the named steps are completed, you are all set! Start the preview and see this feature in action.
- Interact with other users’ posts
2. Post on the wall
Note that users are obliged to log in/register to your app in order to use the social wall.
Can I have two social walls in the app?
Yes, you can have two social walls, however, have in mind that both of these will display the same content!
Deleting posts & comments from the Wall
Since you’re the administrator of this app, you have full rights to delete content from your social wall. To be able to do so, you need to log in to the app with your Admin credentials (credentials you have used to create an account on our platform) using the preview in the builder or you can do that on your mobile device if your app is already live.
For the comment you want to delete, you need to tap and hold for a few seconds until the Delete option pops, and for the wall post, the delete option is available in the top right corner (ellipsis icon).
Users can delete their posts and comments in the same manner.
Social notifications
Each user can decide if they want to receive notifications from interactions on the social wall – eg. when someone likes or comments on their post. To enable social notifications, the user needs to log into their account → navigate to the wall → press a configuration icon in the upper right corner.
There they can choose to receive notifications for likes and/or comments.
Social notifications will be displayed on the Notification centre screen only.
Members
The main purpose of this screen is to list all registered users in the app for users to browse their profiles. On this screen, users can also see chat and video call options on each users’ profile (if you have those features enabled and configured).
To add Members screen to your app, go to Screens → press + button → search Social → hover with your pointer over Social card → select Members.
On the settings page, you can choose to filter users by groups or show all users in the app.
You have previously created user groups, assigned users to a specific group, and added the Members screen to your app, but you’d also like your users to see other users that are assigned to a specific group on Members screen. To do so, follow the next few steps:
- Remove a checkmark from Show all users and select a group you’d like to be displayed on Members screen
- Go to Settings → Users → Groups
- Change visibility of Members screen to the wanted group (make sure that Make all screens private in Protected screens tab is enabled beforehand)
Once a user XYZ (assigned to Sailing Group) logs into the app, on the Members screen they will see only users that are assigned to Sailing Group.
Here is what a user’s profile looks like from the Members screen:
user blocking feature
Users can block other users from Members screen or from Social Wall.
Blocking users from Members screen:
- Go to Members screen
- Find the user you want to block
- Click the ellipsis icon to open the menu
- Choose Block
Blocking users from the Social Wall:
- Go to Social Wall screen
- Find the post of a user you want to block
- Click elipsis icon to open the menu
- Choose Block
In both cases, the user will automatically be removed from the list of users for you and you won’t be able to see their content on the wall anymore.
For a user to be able to unblock some other user, you would need to have Blocked users screen. To add that screen to your app, go to Screens → click the + button → search Social → hover over Social card and select Blocked users.
Here is how to unblock the user from this screen:
My Profile
To add My Profile screen to your app, go to Screens → press + button → search Users → hover with your pointer over Users card → select My Profile.
On My Profile screen users can see and edit their personal information, like their name and surname, location, website, and bio by clicking the Edit profile button. Users can also Log out from this screen, but it cannot be configured.
For better user experience, use our User Profile extension instead.
DELETE ACCOUNT
From My Profile page, the user can also delete their account. What they need to do is click Edit profile button → Delete your account → type in DELETE. They will then be logged out and their account will be deleted from the app as well as from the builder.
Logout
This screen has one simple function – to log out app a user from the app. This screen cannot be configured.
To add My Profile screen to your app, go to Screens → press + button → search Users → hover with your pointer over Users card → select Logout.
Useful articles:
User Management, Protected Screens, and GPDR
If you’d like us to take over the whole app building process and help you create an app with social features, take a look at Shoutem Pro.