This application landed on iOS last year, so it took its sweet time to arrive to Android. Mastodon is actually one of the more popular alternatives to Twitter and some other social media networks.
Mastodon is open source, and the official app is now available on Android
Mastodon is open source, and it’s free to use. That, amongst other things, managed to attract quite a few users to try it out. This social media network has an estimated user base of 4.4 million people. Now, that number is nothing compared to Twitter, but it’s respectable, and Mastodon is constantly growing. Mastodon does come with a rather similar design to Twitter, which is why many people see it as a direct alternative. Do note that Mastodon does not have a centralized database or platform collecting data. It also has no algorithmic timelines. ActivityPub is a protocol that powers everything. The app for Android is actually rather similar to its iOS counterpart. You can log into any Mastodon community, send posts, get notifications, search for posts, and so on. Those of you who are wondering, yes, Mastodon does support dark mode. In fact, it can synchronize with your phone’s dark mode as well. It does not support Material You’s dynamic colors yet, though.
The app does have some limitations, though
There is a downside to this app, though. It does not support viewing the local timeline. In other words, you cannot see a list of all public posts sent from the current community. You also can’t see a list of all posts from all known communities. Do note that some third-party Mastodon clients do support those features, such as Tusky, which is available on Android. Chances are that the main Mastodon app will get such functionality in the future, though. If you’re interested in checking out Mastodon, you can download it from the link below. Mastodon (Google Play Store)
