Common Sense Media Review
By Christy Matte
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Community-based platform for Black users lacks stability.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
Colossill Gram
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's It About?
COLOSSILL GRAM is a social media platform geared toward Black communities as a safe place for members to share their ideas, products, and lives without fear of censorship. Users sign on with an email address or by connecting with another platform like Facebook or Apple. They can add an image, links to a website, and a bio via the settings. Much like Instagram, users can follow each other and see that content in their stream. They can also browse by category (Music, Art, Technology, Gaming, Lifestyle, Sports, DIY, and Food). Users can add likes and comments or bookmark posts for future viewing. They can also add their own images or "Moments," which are similar to Instagram Stories. According to the publishers, content is meant to be viewed by those in a 10-mile radius, although that feature doesn't seem to have been implemented yet.
Is It Any Good?
Despite a promising premise, this community-focused platform isn't quite ready for prime time. Colossill Gram aims to fill a need and, based on comments from users on the platform, the demand is there. Unfortunately, the app is prone to crashing and slow loading times. There aren't very many users, which makes it a hard sell for social media use. It's also missing any sort of help or tutorial, which makes it particularly challenging to those who are new to social media. Other quality control issues -- such as a terms of service document that says "APP_NAME" instead of the actual name of the app -- impact its credibility as a platform to invest in at this point. At the time of review, there's also no privacy policy. But for those who have been looking for an alternative, it may be just enough to make it worth diving into and getting others to do the same.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about safety when using social media like Colossill Gram. What are your family rules around location-based services? Sharing personal information?
Talk about advertising and product placement in social media. How can you recognize an ad in social media? How about a product placement via an influencer?
What makes Colossill Gram different from other social media apps? Why might Black communities want a safe social media space? What do you think about having separate spaces for different groups of people? Are there other communities that could benefit from dedicated apps?
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android
- Pricing structure : Paid
- Release date : June 5, 2020
- Genre : Social Networking
- Publisher : JM Social Media LLC
- Version : 1.8
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 9.0 or later; Android 5.0 and up
- Last updated : July 8, 2020
Did we miss something on diversity?
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