From Noom to Noise, brands across industries are actively embedding social features into their apps to increase user engagement. Such features give users a reason to open your app daily, even when your product or service isn’t an everyday necessity. This consistent interaction over time turns into a habit and reduces uninstalls and drop-offs.

Consider sports as an example. For many of us, it’s a weekend group activity. We open sports-based platforms occasionally to book venues, find coaches, or shop. But what if I told you leveraging social features has helped brands not only increase user engagement but also encourage daily app opens?

Today, we are diving into the playbooks of two brands that have done exactly that through in-app social features. Let’s begin.

Playo - Moving Beyond Bookings

Playo started with a vision of helping sports enthusiasts find venues and games in their vicinity. Once the app gained momentum, they had a community of like-minded people who enjoy sports and often re-connect with each other to continue playing.

However, the problem was this “re-connection” was taking place outside the Playo app. This is when the company decided to build an in-app chat features to enable users to:

• Create or find group chats for different sports
• Connect with each other post games
• Exchange information about venues or games
• Engage in one-on-one conversation with other playpals (Playo’s term for its users).

Results

Inherently, Playo served the need to find venues and games for sports enthusiasts. However, the introduction of in-app chat features allows its users to regularly engage with each other and share their experiences.

This shifts their app’s paradigm from being an occasional app to an everyday socializing platform that connects people with similar interests. Today, playpals can not only find venues or games but can also host events, invite others, and form micro-communities for various sports.

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Playo continues to grow both nationally and internationally, with over 2 million users. In-app chat has also significantly improved their user engagement and retention rates.

‍Decathlon - Commercializing Engagement

Decathlon has expanded in the last few years to offer a wide range of services from shopping to finding sports venues or even coaches. But their standard shopping app has a very not-so-standard feature.

They have introduced an activity feed called “connect” where users can find and engage with like-minded sports enthusiasts. The feed allows users to tailor their interests for a personalized experience, share their journeys through posts and images, and follow other users.

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One standout feature of their activity feed is “product recommendations”. Along with recent activities and interests, users can add up to 5 gears or equipment recommendations on their profile that others can browse and shop. This facilitates product discovery and conversions.

Together, an activity feed and product recommendations create a holistic experience for users driving both engagement and conversion.

‍Final Thoughts

The success of a consumer app is dependent on user experience. While your core product or service attracts the initial app downloads, the value you provide to your users is what keeps them coming back.

Whether it's Playo’s in-app chat or Decathlon’s perfect mix of activity + shoppable feeds, both of them incorporated social features that keep their users well-engaged within the app. If you are also looking to boost user retention, a mix of social features may be your answer.

With LikeMinds’ pre-built Chat and Feed SDKs, you can create customized experiences for your users in just 15 minutes.