Let’s ignore all the other clients already there
Unless you are a social media trendsetter. Chasing an alternative to the behemoth of internet interactions, you may not be familiar with Mastodon, the semi-popular microblogging alternative to Twitter that first launched in 2016. Whereas Twitter is a centralized ivory tower that can ban whatever it wants and is subject to hostile takeover attempts from eccentric billionaires, Mastodon is built entirely on open source software and consists of separate, user-managed servers that interoperate. Despite being more than five years old, Mastodon has yet to release an app for another open source platform, Android. Thank goodness that has finally changed.
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Due to its open source nature, this isn’t the first app to let you into its network, but it’s the first official client released by the Mastodon team (via XDA Developers). While this social network doesn’t have the 200 million strong user base that Twitter has, it’s open source, which means you won’t have to worry about the growing plague of ads, and your feed will always be ordered in chronological order. It’s also a good time for Mastodon. Mastodon has seen a surge in new users following Elon Musk’s initial investment in Twitter, and it’s only likely to grow in new users after it officially opens up to billions of Android users around the world.
However, this app does miss some features that other third-party clients include. While notifications, search, and communities are here, you can’t view local or federated timelines. Still, if the missing first-party app keeps you from trying out Mastodon and you want to give it a try, the app is free on the Play Store and runs on Android 6.0 and higher.
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