about helios.
redefining the future of social networks through the development of a platform for the creation of decentralised apps and services
helios. projecthelios. projectredefining the future of social networks through the development of a platform for the creation of decentralised apps and services
According to the Digital 2020 report, nowadays nearly 60% of the world’s population is already online and the latest trends suggest that more than half of the total population is currently using social media, accounting for approximately 3.8 billion users. In this scenario, mobile apps are growing stronger and the main categories of use are related to chat, social networks, entertainment and video, shopping, music, and maps. The average user spends approximately 3.7 hours a day on their mobile phones, time of which 50% is spent in social and communication apps, while the other percentage of time is used for video and entertainment, gaming, and other types of apps.
Traditional social media apps such as Facebook, YouTube, Whatsapp, Instagram or TikTok have managed to get a large and solid base of users which in total reaches 9 billion users worldwide, and while there are still concerns about the privacy and ownership of data, users continue signing and agreeing to privacy policies that give these companies the power to use their data in any way they see fit.
To face the current challenges and provide users the alternative of safe and innovative social media and other types of apps, helios was born as an EU-funded project envisioning a successful decentralised platform for the development of social networks and apps setting giving users full control for privacy, ownership and sharing of their personal data and/or content generated, all of which are stripped away with the mainstream platforms.
Project short/full name:
HELIOS: A Context-aware Distributed Social Networking Framework
Coordinated by:
Teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT Oy Finland
Start date: 1 January 2019
End date: 31 December 2021
Overall budget: € 4 999 601,25
EU contribution: € 4 999 601,25
Grant agreement ID: 825585
Funded under:
H2020-EU.2.1.1. – INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP – Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
Produce an open-source aging-resilient platform where developers can create their own social media apps in an easy and trustworthy way
Provide a real-life social experience online with intuitive features to be natively integrated into social networking services built on top of the platform
Facilitate easy content production and delivery with modules and apps for orchestrating content production and delivery made by different types of users
Keep the platform fresh and interesting with a developer-friendly architecture with a robust core and powerful add-on modules essential for creating novel Social Networks Services (SNS) easily, and APIs at developers’ disposal for the creation of new modules
Ensure the helios platform growth and resilience through the testing and validation of apps developed demonstrating the platform capabilities to build different kinds of social media apps
helios brings together 15 participants from 8 EU Member States with different backgrounds and expertise to make the platform a reality
helios will reach several milestones and results during the lifetime of the project. Find in this section the public deliverables and reports developed by the helios consortium, publications on journals and conferences, and information about the validation apps
helios is developing an open-source platform where developers can create specific modules or built apps easily leveraging the powerful and robust helios core including different API’s and services
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement N° 825585