Ad-free social network that propelled to popularity last year with an invitation-only launch, Ello, announced that it is now opening to the public via an app for iPhone users.
Last year when Ello debuted as an ad-free alternative to Facebook. It was quite plain, however, that didn't stop it from gaining tens of thousands of users in just a few days, and nearly a million new sign-ups in under a month. Ello's growth has slowed since the initial hype.
However, the social network's feature set has bloomed.
Featuring improved search and notifications, Ello now allows users to post videos from YouTube and audio from SoundCloud. Users can now block troublesome users, and "love" posts so that they can revisit them later. Ello even removed its invitation-only restriction.
One of Ello's biggest announcement came just recently when the social network announced that it finally has an app. Ello relied on the phone's browser for months as far as its mobile presence is concerned, Engadget noted.
While announcing the public launch, Ello did not provide details on numbers of members, but just noted that there were millions using the platform.
Ello co-founder and chief executive Paul Budnitz said, "The new app is beautiful with dozens of unique features."
"With so much positivity on Ello, and with awareness of the negative effects of ads and data collection by other networks coming to the forefront of the news, the timing of our app release couldn't be better," Budnitz added.
Budnitz thinks the platform is now ready for public consumption beyond those who invited their friends initially, "The only thing you could do [on Ello at launch] was post and follow people," Budnitz said.
"The reality is that we wanted to make sure that all of the features of Ello were really solid before we got to mobile," Budnitz added.
That features encompass the ability to comment on posts, to repost and "love" content, along with the ability to post large images, videos, sound files from Soundcloud, according to reports on The Verge.
Last year Ello received a whopping $5.5 million in funding as it changed its code in order to support a promise to remain ad-free, thus becoming a "public benefit corporation." Though the service is currently free, it plans to add premium features which would be paid.
Ello is expected to launch Android and Windows Phone apps later this summer.
