Mastodon's Android App Refreshes as Twitter Falls Apart With Read Limits

Fei Ruby, Tech Times 03 July 2023, 04:07 pm

As Twitter struggles with its read limits and the subsequent breakdown of its TweetDeck app, Mastodon, an open-source alternative to Twitter, celebrates the launch of a major update to its Android app.

The newly released app features a complete redesign based on Google's Material You design language for Android. It also introduces enhanced features, including tab bars, settings, and a revamped compose screen, among others.

(Photo: JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images) This photograph taken on November 7, 2022, shows the logos of social networks Twitter and Mastodon reflected in smartphone screens, in Paris.

Mastodon's Active User Base Grows Despite Decline from Twitter Takeover

Eugen Rochko, the founder and CEO of Mastodon, shared the news of the update on the Mastodon blog.

The social network, encompassing its mobile apps, web version, and third-party clients, now boasts an active user base of 1.4 million monthly active users, according to the company's data. While this figure marks a 19% increase, it falls short of Mastodon's peak popularity following Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter last year when it reached 2.5 million monthly users.

Musk's takeover of Twitter generated a significant wave of attention and interest in alternative social media platforms, including Mastodon. Many users, disillusioned with Twitter's handling of policies and concerns over privacy and data usage, sought out alternatives that offered a more decentralized and community-focused approach. Mastodon, being an open-source platform with a unique federated structure, gained traction during this time.

Mastodon's New Features

Rochko highlights that the new Android app offers users numerous customization options through the settings screen. These range from changing the default posting language to setting reminders for adding alternative text to media uploads and the ability to hide "boost" and "favorite" counters-Mastodon's equivalents of Twitter's retweet feature.

The refreshed Android app also enables users to access information about the server they are connected to and view its rules. In Mastodon's decentralized social network, users join a server that is federated with other servers across the network, each with its own administrators and moderation guidelines.

Additionally, the app's updated user profile section now displays all featured content that was previously missing, such as pinned posts, featured hashtags, and endorsed users.

The app introduces a content filtering feature, allowing users to create filters for phrases or keywords and customize when those filters should apply. Notifications can also be temporarily paused for times when users want to take a break.

A notable change is how the app handles verifications. On Mastodon, users can self-verify by placing a specific link on their website that points to their Mastodon profile. While this doesn't provide a "blue badge" like on other social networks, it verifies a user's identity across the web.

The app now surfaces verified links in search results and other lists, making it easier to distinguish different profiles. This addresses a common complaint from users who found it challenging to find notable people to follow on Mastodon.

The refreshed Mastodon app is available for download from the Google Play Store. While iOS users have a broader selection of clients, including newer ones that emerged after Musk's acquisition and Twitter's API changes, Android users rely heavily on the official Mastodon app. Therefore, updates to the official app have a more significant impact on the Android user base.