Apps lose users fast. On Android alone, social media apps retain less than two percent of users after 30 days. That's a staggering drop-off and a clear reminder that downloads don't equal loyalty.
So, how can you create activity feeds that people actually return to? We've studied platforms across social, fintech, fitness, and edtech, showing how companies design feeds to boost user engagement.
In this post, you'll see ten different activity feed ideas to draw inspiration for your own product.
What Is an Activity Feed?
An activity feed is a stream of user-generated content (UGC), user actions and reactions, system notifications, and product updates. It keeps users connected to what's happening in real time and makes the user experience more interactive.
Activity feeds take many different forms to fit the needs of a product. Some of the most common feed types include:
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For-You feeds: Highly personalized content feeds that surface UGC based on a variety of factors, including geolocation, user behavior and watch history, followed accounts, and user-selected filters.
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News feeds: This type pushes popular content that keeps users updated and drives engagement through social interactions and shares.
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Group and forum feeds: Feeds built around community interaction and discussion of high-quality UGC, using nested comment threads like Reddit.
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Notification feeds: This collects notifications from the app, such as recent likes and comments in social apps or task status updates in productivity tools.
Some apps will include multiple feeds to avoid clutter or provide variation in content delivery. For instance, the same video-based platform might have For-You and News feeds for UGC and a notifications feed for keeping track of social interactions.
10 Real-World Activity Feed Ideas
Here are ten real-world examples of how different apps design their activity feeds with ideas for designing or improving your own.
Pinterest is a visual content discovery platform where users explore ideas and get inspiration in categories like design, food, travel, and lifestyle.
Its Home feed acts as a dynamic activity stream, constantly refreshing with Pins from boards users follow, personalized recommendations based on their activity, and trending content.
Users can scroll through the feed to discover new ideas tailored to their interests that include a mix of images and videos. The feed also surfaces updates from collaborative boards, such as new Pins added by collaborators.
If you're building a visual discovery app, try this:
- Blend personalized suggestions with user-driven updates, like mixing recommended posts with new uploads from followed boards.
- Use micro-animations or gentle "new ideas added" cues to signal freshness and keep users exploring.
Reddit is a community-based discussion platform where users join topic-specific groups called subreddits to discuss their interests and share related links, images, videos, and more.
Its home feed constantly updates with new posts, trending topics, and occasional sponsored ads. This happens with a blend of the user's browsing patterns and Reddit's content personalization algorithms.
Within this feed, users see posts from communities they've joined and others Reddit suggests, such as "Suggested for you," "Popular near you," or "Popular on Reddit right now."
These prompts help users discover new interests while staying engaged with their existing groups.
The interface allows users to upvote or downvote posts anonymously, give awards, or tap the comment icon to join ongoing discussions. They can also share posts externally through Instagram, WhatsApp, or email, keeping conversations active beyond the platform.
Users can also create custom feeds that are personalized collections of subreddits grouped by a specific theme or interest, such as tech news, wellness, or gaming. These can be kept private or shared publicly, letting them organize their browsing experience or collaborate with others who share the same interests.
If you're building a discussion-heavy app, try this:
- Add light social nudges like "rising in your community" to keep feeds dynamic.
- Encourage participation by rewarding thoughtful comments or contributions with visible community badges or flairs.
- Provide avenues for more passive users to express themselves, like Reddit's shareable custom feed curation.
Dabble
Dabble is a social sports betting app that blends fantasy sports wagering with a live, community-driven feed.
The activity feed opens with two tabs, "For You" and "Following", showing real-time posts from bettors across different sports and leagues, like the NBA, the MLB, and the NFL.
Each post displays the user's name, follower count, and a timestamp, along with their picks, player stats, and multipliers.
Users can scroll through picks shared by others, read short captions or reactions, and see combinations, such as "3 Picks (All-In)" or "8 Picks (Hedge)."
Every entry clearly lists the selected players, matchups, and outcomes, while options like "Copy Entry" turn the feed into an interactive layer where users can instantly replicate another bettor's choices.
The social feed features a stream of predictions, wins, losses, and commentary that keeps the betting experience participatory. Instead of static scores, users see what others are doing in real time, making the feed both a source of insight and community momentum.
To design a social or real-time prediction app like this, try these:
- Let users copy or remix others' entries to build a sense of shared play.
- Highlight community achievements and milestones to keep energy high, like the biggest wins or most-followed bettors.
Duolingo
Duolingo is an edtech app that transforms language, music, math, and chess education into a series of bite-sized achievements. Its activity feed blends system-driven progress updates with social cues, light gamification, and Duolingo's iconic visual design to keep motivation alive.
Users can follow other accounts and receive updates in the app's social feed, helping build an in-app community of learners. The feed displays updates from the user, their friends, and Duolingo, including:
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Learning milestones like major daily streaks
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End-of-week rankings for competitive leagues
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User-selected sentences and translations from language courses
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Suggested accounts to follow
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Blog posts from the Duolingo team with learning tips, feature announcements, and more
This feed fosters a sense of belonging and healthy competition among users, driving them to complete more lessons to maintain streaks or show off a first-place ranking in the app's diamond league.
If you're building a learning or skill-building app, try this:
- Mix personal progress updates with peer activity to inspire consistency.
- Refresh the feed with short, educational content like tips, quick quizzes, or user success stories.
- Design visually striking icons for motivational elements that users can show off in their feed, such as badges and streaks.
Twitch
Twitch is a livestreaming platform where creators broadcast gaming, music, conversations, and more, while the audience watches and interacts via text chat.
Twitch's activity feed brings together a lively mix of livestreams and top clips. It constantly refreshes what's happening across the platform, from channels users already follow to popular or emerging streamers they might enjoy.
At the top of the feed, sub-shelves help users explore different corners of Twitch. They can keep things broad with the "All" view or dive into specific categories and collections that match their interests. As users scroll, short, muted autoplay previews let them sense the mood of each stream before joining live in theater mode.
The feed also adapts to user interaction. Every time they like a clip, follow a new streamer, or share a highlight, Twitch learns more about their preferences.
If you're designing a livestream or other creator-centric app, try this:
- Offer quick previews to help users decide what to watch, like silent clips or looping snippets.
- Spotlight both familiar and emerging creators to balance discovery with loyalty.
Fiverr
Fiverr is a freelance marketplace where individuals and teams buy and sell creative and professional services across various industries. Its activity feed functions as a real-time business dashboard, helping sellers track their work, communication, and earnings in one place.
The feed opens with a snapshot of a user's freelance health: level status, ratings, completed orders, and total earnings. They can instantly see how their month is shaping up, including pending payments, cleared funds, and canceled orders.
Beyond performance, the feed is action-oriented. It surfaces unread messages, revision requests, and new client briefs.
To design an operational marketplace feed, consider this:
- Create a clear, at-a-glance dashboard that highlights progress and key performance metrics.
- Prioritize alerts for new tasks or deadlines to support quick decision-making.
- Add visual progress markers or completion cues to make work status easy to track.
eToro
eToro is a social investing and fintech marketplace where trading meets the community.
It has a scrollable feed-centric layout that showcases:
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Big Movers, which spotlights assets with notable price swings
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Beat the Market, where top-performing investors are highlighted for outperforming benchmarks
There are also posts from popular investors, ranging from trade updates and market opinions to data-backed insights. Each one invites interaction; users can like, comment, share, save, or follow the poster for future updates.
The feed refreshes continuously with new content and reactions, transforming financial investing into a social experience.
When designing a social finance or trading app, keep in mind:
- Balance expert-driven insights with UGC to build credibility and trust.
- Encourage participation with reaction tools that turn market updates into conversations.
the*gamehers
the*gamehers is a community built for women, femme-identifying, and non-binary gamers to connect, collaborate, and level up their gaming skills. Its activity feed, GMHRS — Game & Connect, feels more like a digital clubhouse than a standard social stream.
At the top, there are circular profile stories signaling who's online and active, inviting users to join in real-time.
What makes this feed organization stand out is its structure. Instead of one continuous scroll, it's organized into mini-feeds, such as Start Here, Events, Perks & Deals, and General Lounge.
Each one serves as a self-contained thread of introductions, discussions, and updates. Users can jump into the conversations that match their mood or interests, from game deals to event announcements.
This modular feed design keeps engagement focused and inclusive. Rather than chasing virality or endless recommendations, the*gamehers feed nurtures connection through relevance.
To build a purpose-driven or niche community feed, consider this:
- Structure content into themed mini-feeds to help users find the right spaces faster.
- Use visual signals to spark spontaneous interactions, like active profile rings or online indicators.
Trulia
Trulia is a residential search platform helping buyers and renters discover homes and neighborhoods.
Its Home feed serves as a dynamic activity stream, surfacing updates like homes in nearby areas, available rentals with current pricing, agent listings, and new constructions.
Users can view details about each property, such as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, giving immediate context for their decisions.
The feed is most effective when users interact with the platform: browsing more listings, saving homes, and saving searches gradually improve personalization.
Trulia's feed is a great example of the power of simplicity. It focuses on the key updates that matter most to homebuyers without adding extra social elements or distractions.
To design a clean and helpful discovery feed for purchases, try this:
- Keep the focus on actionable updates, new listings, price changes, and availability, rather than social chatter.
- Improve personalization quietly in the background through saved searches and browsing history.
Apple Health
Apple Health is designed as a wellness companion that evolves with the user. Its Summary section works like a personalized feed, constantly updating with the most relevant insights from their health data with detailed visual cues.
At the top is the Pinned section, where users can choose and edit the metrics that matter most, such as steps, active energy, heart rate, or sleep.
Below that, the Trends view tracks long-term patterns and progress across categories like walking distance, active energy, and mobility.
The Highlights section surfaces meaningful updates, from milestones like "You've been more active this week" to alerts when a metric changes significantly.
Users can also set up their medical ID, track emotions/ sleep/ blood pressure, and explore curated health articles and app suggestions tailored to their activity.
Overall, Apple Health's Summary combines data visualization, personalized goals, and educational content into an intuitive feed format, making complex health data approachable and actionable for everyday users.
For teams designing a health or wellness dashboard, keep these suggestions in mind:
- Let users personalize their top metrics, so the data feels relevant and empowering.
- Use clear visuals to track progress, instead of just numbers.
- Introduce gentle, contextual guidance to help users interpret what their data means for them, like tailored tips for improving cardio performance.
From Inspiration to Implementation: Your Feed Strategy
We explored a range of activity feed examples across fintech, edtech, marketplace, and social media applications to understand how they shape user behavior and retention.
Many of these design choices can be applied to your activity feeds, even if the source app differs completely from yours. For instance, Duolingo's streak mechanic can motivate fitness and productivity app users, too. Similarly, Apple Health's customizable metric tracking would also fit eCommerce and professional marketplaces.
That said, you don't need to copy every aspect of these features. Feeds work best when they reflect what people really care about in your product. Pinpoint the moments and interactions that make your audience feel connected, driven, and informed, then refine your feed to tap into them.
When done right, your feed becomes the experience that users come back for.