Ever since Twitter’s ownership changed in late 2022, several apps have sprung up offering to be alternatives with varying degrees of popularity. Some are so recent they’re not even at the beta testing stage yet.
It may be overwhelming trying to navigate the list, but thankfully, I’ve been keeping up with them and have noted five that you may want to keep your eye on. In this article, we’ll dive into these apps, what you need to know about each one, and share some advice for your potential future on these new platforms.
Starting with one most of us are familiar with; Mastodon saw an uptick in users when the Twitter takeover began and has been touted as the most likely platform for users to gravitate towards.
Mastodon is a decentralized network that allows users to create accounts in distinct communities while being able to access others. It’s based on an open-source, “federated” concept, where different servers use the same protocol to speak to each other and share content to one feed.
These servers (also known as instances) allow users to create communities through Mastodon without building the whole infrastructure from scratch. Server operators oversee the users’ activity registered and hosted on their respective servers.
Key Features
Some Use Cases
Available on: Web | iOS | Android
In January 2023, rumors began that Meta had started coding a “Twitter competitor,” and in May, the rumors were confirmed through a leak.
Currently referred to internally as Project 92, the platform has been referred to as Meta’s answer to Twitter and will be integrated with users’ Instagram information. According to The Verge, “The app will use Instagram’s account system to automatically populate a user’s information.” It’s also rumored that the app’s public name might be Threads.
Meta’s chief product officer Chris Cox reportedly shared with employees that the company’s goal for the app was “safety, ease of use, reliability” and making sure that creators have a “stable place to build and grow their audiences.”
There isn’t much out officially about the app, but according to Lia Haberman’s ICYMI newsletter, it could be out as early as July 2023. Some other details she shared in her newsletter are:
The newsletter also shares that there are no current monetization plans, implying that there won’t be ads and the focus will be on organic content.
Available on: Nothing yet
Of all the apps on this list, Bluesky is second in popularity only to Mastodon, as the app has seen increasing hype, in part thanks to its Twitter co-founder and former CEO, Jack Dorsey, co-sign. The app has around 50,000 registered users but has reportedly been downloaded more than 375,000 times.
Bluesky is a decentralized social network, much like Mastodon, that allows its users to share short text updates through different providers instead of a huge central one. The default provider is bsky.social, where I’ve created my account. However, users can set their domain name as their Bluesky username while accessing the platform (instead of tami.bsky.social, I could be tami.buffer.com).
Key Features
Some Use Cases
Available on: Web (in progress) | iOS | Android
True to its name, Post News is a “social platform built for news,” according to its tagline. The main idea behind the platform is to replace the specific function of “trusted news source” that Twitter lost, along with the changes to how verification works.
Since its public launch in February, Post has welcomed over 440,000 users ranging from journalists, subject matter experts, and academics, and more than 30 premium publishers.
Despite serving a similar function to Twitter, Post aims to “develop a platform where publishers can generate revenue from micropayments — that is, where users pay some small amount of money to read individual news items,” according to TechCrunch.
Essentially, the platform seeks to aggregate every news platform that might put a paywall and let users choose when to pay for each news item they want to read instead of paying multiple subscriptions.
Key Features
Some Use Cases
Available on: Web | iOS | Android (coming soon)
T2 Social, founded by Gabor Cselle and Sarah Oh, is the closest platform to Twitter in terms of its user interface, the style of posts, and the general vibe on the platform. This can probably be attributed to Sarah Oh’s experience as Human Rights Advisor at Twitter.
The platform has one of the smaller user bases on this list, reporting 7,500 users in an email update as of June 2023.
Key Features
Some Use Cases
Available on: Web | Desktop
Another entry from ex-Twitter employees, Spill is a social platform launched more recently than any other platform on this list. However, it’s the most different from Twitter, as it’s visual-first, putting it closer to Tumblr in look and feel.
When you open the app, you land on a feed that includes recent posts from people you’re “sipping” (the platform’s version of following, taken from the Kermit the frog meme) and algorithmically served posts. From there, you can pull down a top menu showing trending posts and hashtags. From the bottom menu, users can post text, gifs, videos, photos, links and polls.
Spill stands out from other platforms, including the ones on this list and its CEO’s former company, as a platform that immediately prioritizes diverse communities. CEO Alphonso Terell shared with TechCrunch that the driving ethos behind Spill is that “building for underserved culture drivers would create a superior platform for all.”
Spill is still in beta and is invite-only, so I’ll have to report back with my observations once I’ve been given access. Till then, some key things to know about Spill are:
Available on: iOS (beta)
A common theme across the apps on this list is the focus on decentralization. Users have become increasingly wary of big tech companies and their goals. Worries around data privacy and content moderation are driving user behavior to platforms where they have more control.
Most of these apps have adopted open-source protocols to improve interconnectedness and allow users to control where they settle on the Internet and how they communicate. Mastodon and Meta’s secret project are all built with ActivityPub (which powers the “Fediverse”), while Post intends to adopt it eventually. Meanwhile, Bluesky is built on the ATProtocol, a social networking technology created by the team.
This push towards decentralization means two things for creators (including businesses) and users. One, watching the developments in these apps and technologies is important to understand them better. And two, you must take the time to try them out where you can, especially if users are gravitating towards them.
The more practice you have with using decentralized social networks, the better prepared you are for whatever changes are to come for how we communicate online.