With the roll out of Apple's latest mobile OS (iOS 18), a key—if obscure—feature has some wondering if it spells the end for new social media apps.

To back up a minute, as Kevin Roose writes in the New York Times, the "contact sync" feature of iPhones had allowed social media start-ups in the past to "find their footing, by quickly connecting millions of iPhone users to people they already knew, and suggesting other users for them to follow. That early momentum helped kick-start their viral growth, propelling them to the top of the App Store charts."

As Nikita Bier, a start-up advisor, lamented on X: "RIP Social Apps, 2005-2023." He added that the number of people willing to share their contacts with new apps has "nose-dived", but signaled an area of hope. "From the handful of dashboards I've seen, the retention rates on AI companion/girlfriend apps are extraordinary. …For better or for worse, LLMs might be the new Contact Sync. If we can't find our friends on apps anymore, people will find something else to talk to."

But how many new social media apps are there really? Seems pretty hard to compete with TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and X at this point. Still, for those who tried, 9to5Mac writes, "Apple is ultimately helping ‘make the rich richer,’ in a sense." That's not to say Apple made an unnecessary choice. In fact, 9to5Mac continues, "maybe there are tweaks to the permission process that could make things more user-friendly, but overall, the move toward greater transparency and granularity with contact sharing seems like a very good thing."

"Of course, iPhone users can still upload their whole address books if they choose," Roose adds in the Times. "(There’s also Android, which still requires users to make an all-or-nothing choice.) But it’s reasonable to assume that the added friction of a second screen will result in fewer contacts being shared."

Privacy Concerns

Apple's contact sync move comes amid a larger wrestling by the Tech giant with privacy matters. In 2021, Apple sued NSO Group, an Israeli firm which makes the notorious spyware Pegasus. Apple claimed at the time that "NSO Group and its clients devote the immense resources and capabilities of nation states to conduct highly targeted cyber-attacks, allowing them to access the microphone, camera, and other sensitive data on Apple and Android devices,” reports InfoSecurity. However, earlier this year, Apple dropped the suit citing risks to its Threat Intelligence program. As InfoSecurity adds, Apple believes the case may publicly reveal "sensitive information relating to its cyber defensive measures" that other spyware makers could use.

Verdict

Apple's move to limit contact sharing with apps is in line to the company's "privacy-first" ethos. And though it does seem to favor existing social media apps like TikTok and Meta's app suite, new upstarts to the space were already limited.