10 Reasons Why I am Still on Vero

...and don't miss Instagram at all.

A few of you remember, but most might have missed it entirely: Around 2018, 3 years ago, the mobile social networking app Vero experienced a short hype. Within day the user numbers exploded from about 150.000 to over 3 millions. However Vero was not able to handle that load and many were disappointed by failed sign-ons and several other issues that resulted from the load.

Nevertheless Vero is still alive and released a major update this year with Vero 2.0. For me it is still the better Instagram from a photography perspective. Especially since it is way more than Instagram in some aspects and way less than Instagram in others. 

So here are my ten reasons, why I am still active on Vero.

1. No algorithms that dictates me, what I shall see. Every experienced on Instagram that you miss posts from friends as they are never shown to you, but instead Instagram shows you other stuff, especially sponsored posts?
2. A strictly chronological feed that allows me to view the posts that I missed. Vero even remembers, where you have been last. So after you open the app the next time you don't scroll down in reverse order until you see the last post you saw. No, you just scroll up until you have reached the top. And then you can rest assured that you have seen everything that was posted by those that you are following since you last opened the app. So simple, so intuitive.
3. No influencers and almost no attention whores. There is no money to make on Vero. There are far less users on Vero than on Instagram and therefore far less activities that just aim to get more and more attentions as it just does not pay off. Hashtag abuse unfortunately is still a thing on Vero, but to a far, far lesser extent than on Instagram. People on Vero know that they will have way less reach than on the big networks. They don't care. They are there for the original content and the quality connections.
   You want to try out Vero just for likes and the mass attention? Please stay on Instagram and go away. Vero is not the place for you.
4. No bots. If someone likes your post or leaves a comment you can be pretty sure that there was a human who saw your post and left it intentionally. I'd rather have 20 honest likes and comments from real humans, than 1000 likes from bots where no human ever saw your post.
   There was some criticism that you need to register with your telephone number, just like you do with Signal or WhatsApp. Well, if it keeps the bots and spamers away, I am all for it. 
5. Ad-free, just real content. Vero once said that just the first one million accounts will be free and after that users might have to pay a fee. Well, years later it is still totally free to use.
6. Clickable links and more. Yes, it's 2021 and posts can contain clickable links. Isn't it ridiculous that Instagram still does not allow links in posts? Why? Because they want you to stay in Instagram and not leave it. But even more: It's not restricted to just images or short movie clips. You can post just links, music, movies, books, apps, games, places, or even can share another profile that you like.

   

   
   
   
7. Control who sees a post. No need for separate accounts. A very easy and totally sufficient audience selector allows you to effectively control, who is seeing your posts in 4 easy-to-use levels: Close Friends, Friends, Acquaintances, and Followers & Public.
   In addition you can follow anyone's public post without connecting with that person.
   

   

   
   
   
8. No stories. Who needs stories anyway?
9. Real zooming. Zooming on Instagram must be a bad joke - a really bad one. On Vero it works like you would expect it. Zoom in, take your hand of the screen and view the details of the image - in full screen size. And then pan around to see the rest. No need to keep your finger on the screen.
10. It's beautiful. Well, this is subjective, of course, but to me the app is just way more beautifully designed than Instagram.
    

    

Is Vero perfect? Of course not. I am still missing a way to upload pictures directly from a desktop (UPDATE: Vero desktop is here: https://brand.vero.co/vero-desktop-beta). Being able to share other's content (not reposting, real sharing) would be awesome. I wish they would remove the 'Popular Hashtag' section to reduce these from being abused. And lastly they have an iPad app, but not yet an app for Android tablets.

But other than that I don't look back to Instagram and never regretted that I deleted my account there.

If you are not an attention whore and you are looking for a better, less restricted, and more modern experience than Instagram that gives you back control over what you want to see and prefer interacting with real people from all over the world, give it a try. You can find me there as @aperturized.

P.S.: This is my personal opinion and this post was not sponsored in any way by Vero.