Social apps, reviewed
Social apps are the most aggressive data collectors on any phone, because attention is their product. These reviews weigh each network's genuine usefulness against its tracking, its algorithmic feed design, and the account and ad controls it actually gives you.
Discord: Talk, Chat & Hang Out
The most capable group chat on Android, provided you treat every stranger's link as suspect.
The engine room of Meta's ad business, and the centre of the teen-safety debate.
LinkedIn: Jobs & Business News
Career infrastructure you probably need, wrapped in notification defaults you definitely should change.
The calmest of the big networks, still an ad platform underneath the mood boards.
Pseudonymous communities on every topic imaginable, carrying more ads than they used to.
Snapchat
Ephemeral by design, not by guarantee: what actually disappears, and what Snap keeps.
TikTok
The most effective recommendation engine in consumer software, wrapped in an unresolved geopolitical argument.
X (formerly Twitter)
Still the fastest window on breaking news, with thinner guardrails than the platform it used to be.