Universal Twitter alternatives: Mastodon & co apps

[pacorob]

re: Ice Cubes, this is mostly solved by now, even the response time has been decreased a lot.

It looks like new Mastodon clients are still being born, like Stella*. It's actually sad to have missed the point in time where I could have become rich with writing one myself. - I have uninstalled Woolly when the developer announced his prices. Last time I checked, he still considered one-time purchases though.

I also played with Trunks again, and although I don't like its (weird) GUI, it is intriguing because it is one of the few non-SwiftUI clients in the list.

Indeed Ice Cubes has become better I will update that in the TS as well. I still don't like the loading times (caused by SwiftUI?) when starting the app and switching between the tabs. Feature wise it's one of the best though. Also it could better use of the iPad to support a true multi column support (like Woolly and Mammoth have) besides what is currently available.

Stella has been around since 2014 but only available in certain countries for some odd reason not in my country at least.

I really like Woolly as far as UI but still had some crashes on the iPad while on the iPhone it's great. I would prefer also pay once like Mona will be doing. Woolly was thinking of both options I think maybe it will have both subscription and pay once option. The developer of Woolly is getting through the same nightmare as the Ice Cubes developer has been in for what I read.

I have been Trunks a lot and I like the UI (opinion: I think it's pretty slick) and quick filters. I do still hope it will be using the standard followed hashtags from Mastodon API instead of manually pin them as is now possible but not using the Mastodon API for that so it seems so I have to add my followed hashtags manually. It will be free I think.
As far as notifications there is still some work to be done since they only arrive in the Notification Center when I open up the app in addition it lacks the user image in the notification center. I also hope an option to add a GIF in a post (via Giphy) will become possible still. Also I asked the developer to fix that you can't move the cursor in a post. I also would love to see a true multi column option on the iPad it is already using the full size of the iPad to show multiple posts side by side which is nice. Overall it's pretty feature rich in the short time it has been around and created by one developer. The landscape mode on iPhone is also pretty cool and much nicer then the Ice Cubes one.

 

[it wasnt me]

Stella has been around since 2014

Ah! I saw it first a few days ago and it was updated recently. My mistake, sorry.

 

[lexvo]

FYI, Ivory received some updates and now supports:
- edit posts
- follow hashtags in timeline
- edit profile within app
- and some other things

 

[pacorob]

FYI, Ivory received some updates and now supports:
- edit posts
- follow hashtags in timeline
- edit profile within app
- and some other things

I've update the TS further for e.g. Ivory, Woolly, Trunks. Thanks for letting me know. I do maintain the main Google Doc spreadsheet which gives a much better overview of all supported features. Do let me know if things in there are incorrect. I might remove the things in the TS but I also understand that not everyone wants to check out the GDoc.

 

[MisterSavage]

It's so interesting to see so much activity with so many choices!

 

[lexvo]

I've update the TS further for e.g. Ivory, Woolly, Trunks. Thanks for letting me know. I do maintain the main Google Doc spreadsheet which gives a much better overview of all supported features. Do let me know if things in there are incorrect. I might remove the things in the TS but I also understand that not everyone wants to check out the GDoc.

Some additions for the main Google Doc regarding Ivory. I checked them by trying out in the app.
- show date person joined (under the posts in the user profile, maybe not the most logic spot)
- option to mute user
- paste video into post
- emoticons (emoji)
- ability to hide post again after CW reveal
- add content warning

Ivory also has settings for a badge count on the app icon, but somehow I can't get that to work (either a bug or I am overlooking something).

 

[pacorob]

Some additions for the main Google Doc regarding Ivory. I checked them by trying out in the app.
- show date person joined (under the posts in the user profile, maybe not the most logic spot)
- option to mute user
- paste video into post
- emoticons (emoji)
- ability to hide post again after CW reveal
- add content warning

Ivory also has settings for a badge count on the app icon, but somehow I can't get that to work (either a bug or I am overlooking something).

Thanks I just updated the Gdoc! Every since the app become read only (or you had to become a subscriber) I haven't been keeping a close eye on it.

 

[it wasnt me]

Doesn’t seem to be a huge loss, given that most of the other clients have more features.

 

[pacorob]

Woolly has now also become available in the App Store. A great slick UI (better then Ice Cubes, Mona, Toot or Tooot in my opinion and fast with a great iPad multi column layout (like we had with Tweetdeck). It is also subscription based like Ivory but a lot cheaper though with 0.99 euro a month or 7.99 euro a year. Feature wise it is similar as Ivory so as you might know both still lack some features if you compare it with Ice Cubes, Mona (in TestFlight) Mammoth, Toot!, Trunks (in TestFlight).

 

[it wasnt me]

Mona has left Closed Beta and is available in a free (and free trial Pro) version now.

 

[maflynn]

Bluesky looks promising from what little I know. Still a closed beta though.

I'm hoping a true alternative rises to the top. I'm not really impressed with Masterdon

 

[it wasnt me]

The point is that Mastodon is only one of the several ActivityPub participants. As BlueSky is unlikely to join ActivityPub (it prefers its own NIH approach at OpenID… because lol standards, I guess), it is not an interesting alternative.

 

[MisterSavage]

Mona has left Closed Beta and is available in a free (and free trial Pro) version now.

That one really interests me. When my Ivory sub is about to expire I'm going to give it a hard look.

Bluesky looks promising from what little I know. Still a closed beta though.

I'm hoping a true alternative rises to the top. I'm not really impressed with Masterdon

I like Mastodon for nerd stuff, but otherwise almost none of the journalists, bloggers, etc that write about other fun topics I care about post there. I'll give BS a shot when I can try it.

 

[dmccloud]

I would suggest looking over the Bluesky TOS before jumping on that bandwagon. There are a few clauses included which have already raised the ire of users looking for a Twitter alternative.

 

[circatee]

I have tried over the past few months to get ‘back into social media’. But, the experience has been subpar.

I’m sure Mastodon has some benefits. To me at the moment, it’s more for me to release my random thoughts, with no responses…

Ps: Ivory for iOS does seem to work well.

 

[pacorob]

I have tried over the past few months to get ‘back into social media’. But, the experience has been subpar.

I’m sure Mastodon has some benefits. To me at the moment, it’s more for me to release my random thoughts, with no responses…

Ps: Ivory for iOS does seem to work well.

Ivory is still as far as features pretty limited. Other third party Mastodon clients have so much more to offer as far as feature support although I read that Ivory is launching an update again soon.

I still hope more people will head over from Twitter to Mastodon but apparently for a lot they stay there as we have with WhatsApp while there is Threema and Signal.

I've updated the TS with Mona App Store link and added Manny.

- Manny (website, App Store) - free, with optional in-app to support developer - quite some customizable options but still lacking quite some features. For a full list of supported features check the updated: comparison sheet

 

[circatee]

Ivory is still as far as features pretty limited. Other third party Mastodon clients have so much more to offer as far as feature support although I read that Ivory is launching an update again soon.

I still hope more people will head over from Twitter to Mastodon but apparently for a lot they stay there as we have with WhatsApp while there is Threema and Signal.

I've updated the TS with Mona App Store link and added Manny.

- Manny (website, App Store) - free, with optional in-app to support developer - quite some customizable options but still lacking quite some features. For a full list of supported features check the updated: comparison sheet

...thanks for sharing. Honestly, when I post on Mastodon, I feel like am talking to myself. 😂
But, I will persist, and try a few other apps, too.

 

[it wasnt me]

I have just tried Mammoth and Mona (without Pro) again. While I can see that they are notably snappier than Ice Cubes (and Mammoth has the "hide emojis" feature which all other clients still don't have...!), I had problems using the notifications. Is it just me or does (especially) Mammoth have unreliable push notifications and/or unreliable notification dismissal?

Potential improvement for the comparison table:
tooot seems (?) to support setting the post language nowadays, but there is no button for it. The change log suggests that it is chosen automatically.

 

[pacorob]

I have just tried Mammoth and Mona (without Pro) again. While I can see that they are notably snappier than Ice Cubes (and Mammoth has the "hide emojis" feature which all other clients still don't have...!), I had problems using the notifications. Is it just me or does (especially) Mammoth have unreliable push notifications and/or unreliable notification dismissal?

Potential improvement for the comparison table:
tooot seems (?) to support setting the post language nowadays, but there is no button for it. The change log suggests that it is chosen automatically.

I have seen too much unreliable behavior in the past with Mammoth and therefore stopped using it although packaged with features.

Talking about features that only a few third party apps have but others really need to include as well ASAP:

- to allow users to see all the accounts someone follows; not just those users who belong to the same server as. Clients that have support for this are: Mona, Tooot and Mammoth. I hope clients such as Woolly and IceCubes will add support for this as well soon. I'm currently using Woolly as my main driver

I've updated the comparison sheet for the iOS client of Tooot thanks for letting me know.

 

[MisterSavage]

- to allow users to see all the accounts someone follows; not just those users who belong to the same server as. Clients that have support for this are: Mona, Tooot and Mammoth. I hope clients such as Woolly and IceCubes will add support for this as well soon. I'm currently using Woolly as my main driver

Just keep in mind there's a setting that lets people block people from seeing who they follow so that might be why the info isn't showing.

 

[pacorob]

Just keep in mind there's a setting that lets people block people from seeing who they follow so that might be why the info isn't showing.

That is good to know I didn't know this functionality existed. I try to discover people this way since it can be hard to find people on Mastodon that used to be on Twitter (if they even have been moving to Mastodon).

 

[pacorob]

Another Mastodon app went out of TestFlight into the App Store: Trunks.
It's free with no tracking. The developer did mention that he wants people to support Mastodon servers (monthly) rather then giving him money for his app.

 

[it wasnt me]

He is right with that. I wish more developers (cough, Ivory) would spend more of their time reminding their users that the clients per se are entirely irrelevant for the economic system that is the Fediverse.

 

[it wasnt me]

Metatext has successfully been forked and is seemingly continued as Feditext:

GitHub - feditext/feditext: A free, open-source iOS client for Mastodon, Glitch, GotoSocial, Iceshrimp, Akkoma, and other Mastodon-API-compatible Fediverse instance servers.

A free, open-source iOS client for Mastodon, Glitch, GotoSocial, Iceshrimp, Akkoma, and other Mastodon-API-compatible Fediverse instance servers. - feditext/feditext

github.com