So is Mastodon the Twitter alternative?

Because Elon Musk now definitively owns Twitter, many users have left the famous blue bird behind. The social network Mastodon is seen as the alternative, but does the experience come close to Twitter?

Mastodon

Now that Musk’s Twitter takeover is complete, many people are turning to alternatives to fling short messages into the world. A popular social network is Mastodon, an app that has many similarities with Twitter.

Mastodon is very similar to Twitter, but has “toots” instead of tweets and “boost” instead of retweets. There are also hashtags, mentions and there is a chronological feed without an algorithm. And just like Twitter, you can follow people to see their posts in your feed.

There are also differences. Unlike Twitter, Mastodon has no ads. The app is also decentralized: nobody owns it. The social network is an open-source variant of Twitter and anyone can create their own version of the service.

A good Twitter alternative?

Enough benefits, then, but is Mastodon an attractive Twitter alternative?

When you first open Mastodon, you’re greeted with a list of vague foreign servers. It is unclear what you should choose as a user. We know that there is a common server, the most popular of which is Mastodon.social is. Displays the toots of multiple services. But you just have to know.

After this step, your account will be hosted by your chosen server, but you can also follow and interact with people from other servers without needing multiple accounts. It is also possible to move an account to another server without losing followers.

Okay, so I’m more or less here, but I still get the hang of it. I get there through the links of others, but when I try the app myself I only get strange foreign domains. Language settings are correct. Feel like Gé and Arie Temmes now. https://t.co/isWs4SjQAq

— Claudia de Breij (@claudiadebreij) October 30, 2022

The beginning is not very user-friendly and seems to put off many users. Overflowing Twitterers are climbing en masse into the digital pen to criticize Mastodon – of course on the trusted nest of Twitter.

It’s also quiet on Mastodon – especially if you’re used to Twitter. For example, on Mastodon, the hashtag #MexicoGP was used 32 times in the past few days. In comparison: on Twitter that was 266,000 times. For now, Mastodon is more of an adorable microblog than a serious alternative to Twitter.