With over 300 million users, Twitter is one of the most used social media platforms today. Its simple, easy-to-use interface has made it quite popular among social media creators.
But ever since Twitter was bought off by the eccentric billionaire Elon Musk, multiple reports claim that the microblogging site may shut down anytime soon.
So, with that in mind, if you want to widen your online presence, it’s better to try twitter alternatives such as Mastodon.
What is Mastodon?
Mastodon is a free, open-source social network that’s similar to Twitter. It’s an alternative to Twitter and other closed-source services because it’s decentralized: there isn’t one central authority that controls Mastodon.
Instead, Mastodon is built on the idea of the federation—there are many different instances of the site called “instances,” each with its own rules and governance structure.
Each instance can have its moderators and administrators who enforce community guidelines and decide which content should be allowed on that particular instance.
Mastodon is written in C/C++ with contributions from the Go language and Ruby on Rails framework for web services implementation. There are also some Python components in the Mastodon codebase.
5 Best Features of Mastodon App
Mastodon’s interface is clean and easy to use. You can see posts from people you follow or popular ones from across the site in one place, like on Reddit or Instagram. The notifications are also very clear about which new posts include mentions of you or keywords related to your interests—this makes it easy to find what you want without having to scroll through everything else first.
That’s not it. Here are some of my favorite mastodon app features –
The 5 Best Features of Mastodon App:
- It’s open source, so that anyone can contribute to the code. This means it’s constantly improving and evolving.
- You have complete control over your data: Mastodon is not a big company that sells your information or uses it for advertising purposes. You can delete all of your posts and accounts whenever you want.
- There are no ads on the site, so there won’t be any popups or banners cluttering your feed.
- You can post text, photos, GIFs, links, and videos.
- The platform is fully decentralized: No one server controls Mastodon. There are many instances of the site worldwide—each operates separately from the others and stores its data.
How Is Mastodon Different from Twitter?
There are some critical differences between Mastodon and Twitter that you should know about before jumping ship.
- The first is that the service is open source, meaning the source code for the app is freely available to anyone who wants it. This makes it easier for developers to work on projects like alternative clients and apps built on top of Mastodon. It also means that any user can customize their instance of Mastodon by editing its code directly—and they can share their customizations with others as well. For example, suppose you want your instance’s posts to look different than those on other instances. In that case, you can make those changes by editing the CSS files within your instance’s codebase or paying someone else who has already done this (like @twit-devel).
- Another difference is in how you interact with other users’ content: posts have a character limit just like Twitter does (500 characters), but unlike Twitter, there isn’t a threaded conversation style where replies show up nested under each other when viewing one person’s feed; instead, everything is chronological order unless you’re viewing an individual post or thread created by another user (in which case it shows up ordered based on when those posts were made).
How to Download the Mastodon App on Android?
Downloading and installing the Mastodon app on Android is easy. If you’re not sure where to begin, consider these options:
- The first place to look is the Google Play Store. It’s a good idea to check there first because it’s easy and reliable; plus, some of the apps listed there may have been reviewed by other users who can give you a heads-up about what works well and doesn’t.
- The second place to look is f-droid, an alternative Google play store app repository run by volunteers that provide free software in an open-source environment with no proprietary code or backdoors.
- You could also try APK Mirror or another source outside of Google Play if you prefer not to use any store at all; however, this will require installing third-party apps like APK Downloader so that your device has access again after it’s been blocked by security settings set up during initial setup (but don’t worry about anything getting installed on your computer!).
How to Set up the Mastodon App on iPhone?
- Open the App Store, and search for Mastodon.
- When you find it, click Get to download it to your phone.
- When it’s done downloading, open the app and sign up with an email address you regularly use (iCloud or Gmail).
- Enter a username and password combination that you feel comfortable using on the social network (this is not something you want to make up).
- Set your profile picture (you can do this later if you want), add a bio about yourself as well as links to relevant websites or other social media accounts where people can find out more about who you are and what matters most in your life (e-books are a great way of doing this). This step might feel weird at first because it sounds like something only celebrities do when they create Twitter accounts, but trust me—it’s essential!
- Add an avatar image if there isn’t one already in place—and voila! You’re done setting up Mastodon for iPhone!
Mastodon App Review: How Does the App Fair Against Twitter?
If you’re considering switching to Mastodon, I recommend you go with the app first. It’s not a perfect experience by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s more than good enough for getting an idea of what Mastodon is like. The web interface for Mastodon has several limitations and bugs that aren’t present in the mobile app version.
- You can’t be followed by people who aren’t following you back (like on Twitter)
- You can’t favorite tweets or posts (you have to block or mute them instead).
But they do offer some features that Twitter doesn’t:
- Rich text formatting – bold, italicize, strikethrough, etc…
- Increased word limit.
- Open-Source.
Conclusion
Since the chaos started around the Twitter app, creators have been shifting to the Mastodon app and have seen a significant spike in daily traffic.
And with all the controversies surrounding the Twitter app, you may see the mastodon app taking charge in microblogging social media sites.
That’s all for now.
If you’ve anything to share about the mastodon app, feel free to let us know in the comments below.
