Mastodon is the Twitter alternative: what can you do with it?

Mastodon’s popularity is rising this week after Twitter was taken over by Elon Musk. But what exactly can you do with Mastodon and is it an interesting alternative to the blue bird network?

Mastodon as an alternative

Twitter was finally taken over by Elon Musk this week. He wants to take a different path with the social network and not every user is waiting for that. That’s why users look to alternatives. Mastodon is a platform that a group of users are looking at right now. But what can you do with Mastodon and is it really an alternative to Twitter? We looked it up for you.

Mastodon is available both as an app and via a website, with the website reminiscent of the web version of TweetDeck with its columns. The service is partly comparable to Twitter. For example, there is its own timeline and your ‘toot’ can contain a maximum of 500 characters. Toot is the word for a message on Mastodon, as it is called on Twitter, tweet. With a too you can add a photo, a character from the database (such as Pikachu) or a poll. You can also mark a toot with a warning. You can also send a private message to someone. You do this via the same compose window, and then choose ‘only people i mention’ when sharing your message. This way you can also determine per message whether the whole world is allowed to see this, or only your followers.

Mastodon was founded in 2016 and has a slightly different approach than Twitter. It is not a matter of creating an account and choosing a username. When you create an account, you choose a server on which you log in. However, it does not matter which server you log in to, because they are all connected to each other. However, a certain server can use different rules and they are often theme-related. You can also log in to the general server.

Just like on Twitter, you can get started with the search function and there are the hashtags on which you can find posts. You can follow other users and you can mention others with the @, or the at sign. With your account you can set a profile picture and also a featured header picture. On Mastodon, sharing explicit content or inciting hate is not allowed.

Good luck, follow and download

Whether Mastodon will really be a success remains to be seen. After all, that largely depends on whether others get started with Mastodon. Creating an account is free and there is also no advertising present in the service as far as we see so far. You can download the app from the Google Play Store via the button below. Mastodon is also available for iOS.

We have already created an account. If you want to follow us, search the account @droidapp@mastodon.social, or via this link.