The new social media, ad-free & encrypted

Minds can be your all new social network: free, open and encrypted. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, both of which sell ads to survive, Minds (still in beta stages) is betting on a reward based model to keep the cash flowing. Not being reliant on advertising money also leaves the platform free from the perils of having to snoop into conversations, data or activities of its users. And, just as reassurance, Minds encrypts everything. Like Ello, Minds doesn’t mind anonymous accounts either.

After signing up for an account, the collapsible navigation panel is your window to the vast options of activities possible on Minds. Follow channels or accounts to populate your Newsfeed with their updates. The Directory is the best way to get started. Sort out people and channels based on their popularity or discover the sub-sites of Minds. Minds also has a blogging engine built and integrated with the account you create. Top blog posts get featured and listed in the trending section so they can be found with ease. The RSS mirror feature on the Blog section can automatically pick up articles from a website or blog by adding the RSS feed URL to it.

The video section brings back memories of YouTube’s early days, with options to find the trending or featured videos. You’ll find anything there, from really cool science experiments to videos about super food. Similarly, the image tab is a combination of Pinterest and Instagram. Every picture can be commented upon, liked or disliked. Whether the dislike button tones down the hate comments or not will be interesting to observe down the line.

If you manage to get a lot of your friends on board the new social network, creating a group might be fun. If you can’t manage that, though, then you can always send in a request to join the pre-existing groups instead. They also have an app for iOS and Android ready to get you hooked. — Sanshey Biswas