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Yandex rolled out a beta of an independent Aura - aura.top. Is it top?

On March 15, 2019, a test version of Aura was launched. On this occasion , an article about the Yandex social network - Aura, was published on Habré . For several days, comments and social networks were shaken by the general search for invites, then Aura sharply limited the issuance of invitations. All this year, she existed as part of the Yandex mobile application and lived her own, not quite stormy life. Today, March 3, 2020, a message was sent to users' mail that Aura is now an independent service and now resides at aura.top . So, you need to dig deeper into it. Screen from the main page of Aura. It is naive to believe that it will reach step 4




Such a letter came to all of my Yandex accounts:



Menu


Now users can "sit" in the Aura from the mobile version or in the application (available on Google Play, promise soon in the App Store). Registration in Aura is available to absolutely everyone (not like before - by invite), but you can send an invitation to your friends or share it in social networks. networks. 

The aura has sections that are typical for a social network and navigation that is not typical for a desktop, which was already in the first version of Aura: when swiping to the left, the post flies away, when swiping to the right, the post receives a like from you. On the desktop, you can control the navigation with the mouse, or you can use the arrows on the keyboard (by the way, the direction of the likes can be set in the user profile - pleasant attention to left-handed people). 


The “Feed” section displays all publications in a row that match your interests (you specify them during registration). This includes publications from strangers you are not subscribed to - this is how Aura’s main mission is: connecting people of interest using artificial intelligence.



Anonymous posts from various users get into “Anonymous” posts. By the way, if in the first version of Aura abusive words and insulting vocabulary did not make it possible to publish your post, in the current version filters for such expressions were not installed (tests were successful).


In the first version, it was not possible to publish this. And now even a 3-letter word has succeeded.

The Hot topics include popular user posts that are being discussed (though it’s more interesting than the Lenta, which has nothing to do), and in the Subscriptions there are posts from those people and those topics that you are subscribed to. In "Communities" - publications of communities (among which you can find Zen channels, for example). In “Near” - posts are displayed near you for 7 days. 

Comments from other users can be rated from -3 to +3. That is, you can put the user in one comment -3, -2, -1, +1, +1, +2, +3. With minus, the comment fades and disappears completely. You can reverse your decision to plus or minus. 

You can also complain about the comment and hide it without ratings. Caution when testing a complaint - it is sent immediately, the interface does not offer to choose a reason! 


Not a single comment was hurt, I returned everything 

. Emoticons are available when responding to comments. But when creating a post, emoticons are not available, which inspires hope that we will see some restrained texts. Although to whom it prevents to do so ))))) P XD....



Further under the feed tapes there are several “working” sections:

  • People are the people you follow.
  • Profile - profile settings (by the way, it is surprising that when entering the new Aura with a previously registered account, I had to enter my mobile and name - the rest of the information, including posts, avatars and chats, was tightened up).
  • Chats are chats.
  • Notifications - notifications of events in the Aura. In notifications, you can configure individual types of messages or disable everything.
  • History - the ratings you put, the posts you viewed, and your comments.

Smart matching is still alive - a dating function based on selection using artificial intelligence. It can be turned off, for communication it is necessary to have the consent of two parties. You can also connect the “Automatic community” - twice a week the algorithm will pick up interesting people for you and invite you to a closed post for communication in the comments. 



User profile


The user profile is pulled from the old version of Aura, if you are already registered in it. 

The profile displays the photo, type of subscription, age, subscribers, information about yourself, interests, your posts. You will also make some adjustments during onboarding.

Also, achievements are loaded into the profile - the badges that you earned in the Aura. For example, I have “Lampovost” (one of the first users of Aura) and “Active author of the beta test” (creates posts and communicates with the community). 


My icons

Profile photos are still tough requirements: a clear, large human face. Seals and little cars will not work - it's almost like in a passport, without a corner :-)

In the profile settings, you can set the most standard privacy settings (show city, show birthday, show profile in the People section, accept chat requests from everyone, show age in the profile). There is also a blacklist where you can send people who you don’t like. In addition, those with whom you have marked the restriction of the display of posts or comments will be displayed in a separate list. You can also set the option “Hide content with obscene language” (yeah, that means it’s really not forbidden), the option is disabled by default.  

Content


Aura content requirements can be viewed here. In principle, nothing new and unusual. Of the interesting ones, a ban on advertising (that is, links to their services, an office, etc. cannot be placed). Here's a quote for you: “In the Aura, it is forbidden to publish information of an advertising nature, that is, information aimed at attracting attention to a product, work, service and / or brand, creating or maintaining interest in them and / or promoting them on the market.” And this is very interesting for me, because something tells me that in case of at least some success of Aura there will be an advertisement there (Yandex.Direct, everything is classic) there will probably be some offers for companies (corporate blogs? Paid communities? paid company profiles? While it remains to be guessed). 

The length of the post in the Aura is up to 5000 characters, this is quite a lot, there is where to unfold (but will anyone read). There are several buttons that allow you to add a simple poll to the post with three buttons, an image, a link to video or audio, a voice message up to 1 minute long (yes, it’s clearly the lobby of fans who want to send serial voice messages in a telegram!).



Formatting is available for the post, which, of course, pleases:

  • = Title =
  • ** Bold **
  • *Italics*
  • * List item
  • %% Quote or code %%
  • ((Community))
  • @User

Another thing is that an ordinary Aura user without the skills of testing IT systems is unlikely to realize that information about the available formatting options is behind the inconspicuous gray i icon . 

For your post, you can choose a background color, including a gradient. But if you publish the post anonymously, only the black background color is available - the stylish dark side of the Aura. I take this opportunity to remind you that you are anonymous only to readers. Well, suddenly someone did not know. 



Premium account


When registering, you are informed that if you register before May 31, 2020, you will receive a Premium account for free for 1 year. Yeah, let's try to find out what it is.
We find:

Premium-account is a user account that has special properties:

  1. ( , , Smart-matching, , ..)


The Premium account is valid for a specified period, after which the Premium account must be renewed.

The purchase and extension of a Premium account usually occurs for money or for the performance of any tasks from the service.

When registering before May 31, 2020, you get a Premium account for 1 year for free as a gift from the service.

This means that advertising will definitely be and definitely will be cutting functionality. Oooo. It is also obvious that the premium account will be issued for some achievements - which means that Yandex will strive to foster the activity of Aura users with gamification. 

By the way, while picking Aura, I found just such a die:



I wonder why such a fit and to whom it is charged? Nicely!

Subjective pulled up


Subjectively, the Aura looks the same as it looked: a hybrid of all social networks with not quite intelligible content. I would like to see Instagram with an expanded text function in the Aura, but so far Odnoklassniki guess by filling. 

What well?


  • Partial gamification and the ability to earn a premium account.
  • Chance to disable ads.
  • Formation of tapes by interests.
  • Communication functions.
  • You can limit the audience of the post and the lifetime of the post.
  • A support center was immediately rolled out , where you can find answers to a number of first questions. It is especially useful to read all the answers to all the questions here in the knowledge base .

What is wrong?


  • A heavy interface for a simple layman - one post designer is worth what. Everything seems to be simple and pleasant (when you’ve been in IT for a hundred years), but you understand that many interface elements are not obvious.
  • . — , . (). 
  • : , . , , .
  • — , . 

And Aura is now a separate legal entity of II-Technologies LLC and is available to people from 16 years old.

I did not find any chips in the Aura that would conquer me and make me choose it as another social network. But one cannot deny its laconicism and interesting concept, which I want to watch: how it will fly, how it will earn, for which experiments it will be used? If the project breathed for a year and even was put into the status of an independent service, it means that it has some future and certain prospects. For me, they are foggy or completely conspiracy theories. 

Share your thoughts on what Aura will become for a Russian Internet user. Do you bet?

PS: Aura slows down after mass receipt of letters, we are waiting for the habraeffect.

UPD 1: Facebook doesn't like the link to Aura

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