The official app is not very user friendly. The mobile web is shoddy on Safari (iOS). I therefore use a third party app (Metatext, which is developerless atm, so I'm on borrowed time there)
The official app is lacking important features like the federated timeline that they have refused to implement despite being the most liked and replied to issue on their GitHub so I use the megalodon fork that adds them. I find the lack of feature parity a real shame because many will just download the official app without ever using the webUI or a 3rd party app. Hopefully they change their mind on this (and other features like unlisted visibility) like they did with the local timeline. 😖
Fedilab. Mastodon is the only social media I use on my phone. I was too distrustful of Facebook and Twitter apps to use them.
Part of what got me to post here when I joined in '21.
Of course, my feed is quite busy and more interesting than Facebook, now (also Twitter, but my Twitter account was never very interesting -- never seemed to click for me).
What really intrigues me is how much better Mastodon was (even in '21) than Diaspora, since they are similar in many ways.
on the main device, sorry. Which is sadly an #iPhone.
Actually, the story goes like this: I wanted to buy a photocamera to take good photos (my Android is a potato), but since my Android is physically damaged and is barely operational (I still take it with me to travels so that I have an extra device and use it to catch up with some people); I figured that I should go for an iPhone. 🙁
It's actually OK and I don't use many applications on it, since Apple ecosystem is worse than Android, so weirdly enough it allowed me to break free from having too much of phone screen time.
Conversely, Apple has amazing productivity apps. It made me actually do some writing before sleep from the phone! Overall, I'm happy with the move, it's still Apple, a company affiliated with an oppressive regime, so I still feel guilty for owning the product that they made by exploiting this affiliation, but feeling guilty is normal 😁
This needs to be based on your phone OS... as my answer varies by OS...
on iOS I use Ivory Beta or Metatext because they're both nice.
on Android, there are ZERO non-terrible clients I use then native mobile web client - I hate that too, but it is far better than any of the android clients which universally suck.
The idea that there is a Mastodon client is actually rather disconcerting. I mean, is there an Apache web browser? Or a Dovecot or Postfix mail reader?
Thanks for posting this. It made me think about how I love the way mastodon is pure web UI on my laptop, and wonder why I never gave Firefox on my phone a proper chance as a mastodon client before installing metatext.
I would even make a case that Mastodon developers should focus on making API, and growing the moderation team. Creating a union of moderators so that other servers can join more easily for the fee or membership they pay to moderators.
They could leave UI/UX mostly for third-party app makers, Elk is already way better. What is missing though is a lot of API, like how to get the following graphs of remote users, and pull more old posts & replies, restrict replies, etc...
On my phone, the web UI. On my tablet, I was using Metatext and now @tootapp It's funny how the web UI feels right on a super narrow screen, but on a wider touchscreen it was uncomfortable enough that I kept looking.
WHICH app is an ongoing process; using Megalodon at the moment but I have several others queued to try out. My needs aren't sophisticated right now, though.
The apps that are out there are very nice -- I have also used @Tusky and https://elk.zone/ -- but the conceptual model is very uniform.
We don't have to follow the Mastodon default conceptual model! Nobody can stop you if you make a wackadoodle app that replicates Yo! Mods are asleep, let's get weird.
@Tusky Oh, and anyone who wants to tell me that there's EXACTLY ONLY ONE RIGHT WAY everyone has to experience the fediverse EVER EVER EVER can suck eggs. I didn't get in the federation game for rigid uniformity.
I have been looking for this kind of experimentation as well, but we just barely have any clients supporting everything Mastodon supports. Hopefully this will come in time. Also, while still mostly uniform, Toot! does bring a bunch of whimsy.
I did see a test flight link for an app that had you swipe toots sideways like a slide show. I can’t recall the name now though 😕 I didn’t bite because I know I don’t have the patience for that interface 😅
While I fully agree, at some level there is no difference between mailing-lists, web forums, NNTP, Matrix, ActivityPub, ... yet bridges between these show that the UI shapes the content sufficiently that it's often cumbersome to read something with a very different UI than the majority. IOW some amount of uniformity is probably unavoidable
Haven’t been back to #Plurk for a while, does it still work sideways? Used it back when networks used to #syndicate 2010ish. Forgot about it until #TalkLiberation daze and only just checked it now. Wow. https://www.plurk.com/JoMangee still exists. I miss #aggregation of all the socials.
I would like to see modular apps, such that someone could plug in a different UI or other part of the app.
In my own app, a theme consists of an HTML template set, a CSS file, and an image set. A designer could create an entirely different UI, which could then be selected by a user. (The themes will have to pass security checks.)
In the last weeks I have been working on a prototype for an ML-powered algorithmic timeline for mastodon. I think this could be a good idea, but only as long as people have full control of it, i.e.
In re: comments earlier on the thread linked below, this thread to which I'm replying, a survey about mobile fediverse clients, is one I had in mind particularly.
I mainly use the Mastodon Web UI in advanced mode on my Android Tablet. It's really useful, especially 'pinned' panes displaying posts from lists (you are on my Fedis list)
The only thing I sort of miss is the 'in case you missed this' feature from Twitter because I'm not on Masto all day. This can be partially achieved using lists panes, but at the expense of screen real estate
What I don't want is 'you might like this' posts. I prefer to define my own journey of discovery
Hey there! Hope I'm not hijacking your thread. Was going to post out to the fedi-ether to ask a question and then I saw your thread and guessed you might already know.
I'm looking for a mobile fedi app that is solely a posting app, no reading or browsing. It may not exist. I'm just hoping.
Dani Llewellyn 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈
•Evan Prodromou
•Philip Moscovitch
•0ddfactory :0dd_verification:
•Space Catitude 🚀
•Part of what got me to post here when I joined in '21.
Of course, my feed is quite busy and more interesting than Facebook, now (also Twitter, but my Twitter account was never very interesting -- never seemed to click for me).
What really intrigues me is how much better Mastodon was (even in '21) than Diaspora, since they are similar in many ways.
Jons Mostovojs
•Evan Prodromou
•Jons Mostovojs
•Actually, the story goes like this: I wanted to buy a photocamera to take good photos (my Android is a potato), but since my Android is physically damaged and is barely operational (I still take it with me to travels so that I have an extra device and use it to catch up with some people); I figured that I should go for an iPhone. 🙁
It's actually OK and I don't use many applications on it, since Apple ecosystem is worse than Android, so weirdly enough it allowed me to break free from having too much of phone screen time.
Conversely, Apple has amazing productivity apps. It made me actually do some writing before sleep from the phone! Overall, I'm happy with the move, it's still Apple, a company affiliated with an oppressive regime, so I still feel guilty for owning the product that they made by exploiting this affiliation, but feeling guilty is normal 😁
Callalily@masto.ai 💛💙
•Derek P. Collins
•The Halls Careen
•It can be set up to display the federated timeline, which I couldn't figure out how to do on some other apps.
Dave Neary
•V is for...
•on iOS I use Ivory Beta or Metatext because they're both nice.
on Android, there are ZERO non-terrible clients I use then native mobile web client - I hate that too, but it is far better than any of the android clients which universally suck.
Evan Prodromou
•V is for...
•Evan Prodromou
•Otters et al.
•Evan Prodromou
•Stefan Monnier
•Reuben
•Eric Forste
•zcopley
•Evan Prodromou
•zcopley
•zcopley
•geraldew
•Abraham Williams
•Evan Prodromou
•Abraham Williams
•Joseph Louthan
•Evan Prodromou
•Tony Hoyle
•GiacomoSansoni
•𒀭𒂗𒆠 ENKI ][e
•Jari Pennanen
•They could leave UI/UX mostly for third-party app makers, Elk is already way better. What is missing though is a lot of API, like how to get the following graphs of remote users, and pull more old posts & replies, restrict replies, etc...
bazkie bumpercar | unfluencer
•*OG hipster*
Lars Rosenquist
•Eddie Roosenmaallen
•It's funny how the web UI feels right on a super narrow screen, but on a wider touchscreen it was uncomfortable enough that I kept looking.
JP :verified_root:
•Savah Rellcast
•Spark Purcell (they/them)
•Gadfly (-booq-)
•:ColInf: :Tolaat: :Mux2000:
•Evan Prodromou
•official - Wiktionary
en.wiktionary.orgFeralRobots
•stephen ✊ ✪ 🍞 &🌹🌹🌹
•DrS
•Ctrl-R
•o ifrit
•Frédéric Bonnet 🇫🇷🇪🇺🇺🇦
•Adam Z
•a9b6a509-a1ba-4b5f-bde4-f507c6529377
•Evan Prodromou
•Officially Tara 🕷️ :ms_bat: 🌹
•Curtis Smith
•Strght
•Evan Prodromou
•Strght
•heracl.es
•americanjeff
•Tarkus
•crunch
•crunch
•Thanks. 🙏
ploink
•Steve Wildsmith
•Evan Prodromou
•I use the official PWA, which is very nice.
If I had a quibble with the state of the ecosystem right now, it's that there's not as much wild experimentation in clients as I'd like.
Where are the apps where the timeline goes sideways, Plurk-like?
Who is experimenting with algorithmic sorting of the timeline?
Who is doing integration with voice assistants?
Evan Prodromou
•We don't have to follow the Mastodon default conceptual model! Nobody can stop you if you make a wackadoodle app that replicates Yo! Mods are asleep, let's get weird.
Elk
ElkEvan Prodromou
•Potato ENTHUSIAST
•Evan Prodromou
•mcg
•Blain
•Evan Boehs
•jph
•Herr Falschgold
•Stefan Monnier
•Jo
•JoMangee
www.plurk.comKingsley Uyi Idehen
•#gptChat
James M.
•Evan Prodromou
•social networking and micro-blogging service
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)James M.
•aburka 🫣
•James M.
•In my own app, a theme consists of an HTML template set, a CSS file, and an image set. A designer could create an entirely different UI, which could then be selected by a user. (The themes will have to pass security checks.)
Evan Prodromou
•Hillary Hartley
•Vincent 🌻🇪🇺
•Davide Eynard (+mala)
•🙋 and I’d be glad to chat about it 🙂
Ref: https://fosstodon.org/@mala/109519722567578773
+mala (@mala@fosstodon.org)
Fosstodonlike jam or bootlaces
•In re: comments earlier on the thread linked below, this thread to which I'm replying, a survey about mobile fediverse clients, is one I had in mind particularly.
https://mastodon.social/@misc/109694760638955836
@evan
Jesse Baer (@misc@mastodon.social)
MastodonSpace Hobo
•Come on, people: BOOKS FOR DOGS! make it happen!
mcg
•David Beck (@davbeck@mastodon.social)
MastodonEvan Prodromou reshared this.
Phil L.
•The only thing I sort of miss is the 'in case you missed this' feature from Twitter because I'm not on Masto all day. This can be partially achieved using lists panes, but at the expense of screen real estate
What I don't want is 'you might like this' posts. I prefer to define my own journey of discovery
Evan Prodromou
•Evan Prodromou
•barefootliam
•Dark Flame Master
•I'm looking for a mobile fedi app that is solely a posting app, no reading or browsing. It may not exist. I'm just hoping.
David Slifka
•