Looking at a photo of an owl on a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)

It has been all over the news recently. Regardless of whether you like the changes Musk has brought to the company, a lot of people are looking for alternatives just in case.

Birda is a new social networking app that aims to replace some of the mindless chatter on social media with something different. The goal of the social network is to help people stop looking at their phones and instead look up at the trees and enjoy nature.

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Are you interested in posting? You can either start by posting about a single bird you saw, or you can start a birdwatching session while you are out for a walk or a hike. This last one is a lot of fun for people who like to walk daily and it makes it easy to pay attention to the world around you.

Either way you post, you'll give your location, either the exact spot where you saw them or just a general area where you were. If you like to watch the birds at home, you'll want to choose the more generic location.

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It's a lot of fun to have conversations on this platform and work together toward something wholesome and fun. Gosh, what a massive difference from other social networks, huh?

If you want to keep your individual encounters private, you can turn them into a personal catalog of your adventures.

While the main feed shows folks from around the world, you can choose to keep things more local by sliding over to the Nearby tab and helping others identify birds they've seen but don't know.

It's a lot of fun to talk about things that are wholesome and fun.

What a huge difference from other social networks.

The image is the first of four.

Screenshots from the Birda app
(Image credit: Android Central)

Screenshots from the Birda app
(Image credit: Android Central)

Screenshots from the Birda app
(Image credit: Android Central)

Screenshots from the Birda app
(Image credit: Android Central)

You can join in one of the many challenges Birda offers its users if you don't want to post your own pictures. Do you want to see at least 100 different bird species in the year 2023? The challenge is for that.

I'll be joining in on the New Year's Challenge that asks users to log at least 10 different bird species on New Year's day. You'd better believe I'll be seeing a lot of my feathered friends making their way to the easy food source since I just set my bird feeders up again for the winter.

Or maybe you're using one of the best phones on the market, like the S22 Ultra or the Pixel 7 Pro, which can zoom in and out to get a clear picture? If you join one of the bird photo challenges, you can see if you can compete with people who use big DSLR cameras.

The image is the first of four.

Photos of birds taken with a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra at 30x zoom or greater
(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)

Photos of birds taken with a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra at 30x zoom or greater
(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)

Photos of birds taken with a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra at 30x zoom or greater
(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)

Photos of birds taken with a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra at 30x zoom or greater
(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)

Look at how good those pictures are. Many of them were taken from further away from a 30x zoom. The camera of theGalaxy S22 Ultra is amazing.

I had to take a picture of my chickens in there. It's hard to resist.

If you end up getting hooked on using Birda and find that birdwatching is something you love, I'd recommend getting a Galaxy S22 Ultra or waiting just a few months for the GALAXY S23

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