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Curious about the social network Mastodon that everyone is suddenly talking about, but don’t you get it? We’ll help you on your way to your first toot with our Mastodon Beginner’s Guide!

Mastodon Beginner’s Guide: Here’s How It Works on Your iPhone

Every Twitter user has heard of Mastodon by now. Now that Elon Musk is in charge of Twitter, many users are turning to this alternative social network. Whether you’re taking a look for that reason, or just curious, we’ll help you on your way to your first toot in this Mastodon beginner’s guide.

Mastodon is not new. The social network has been around since 2016 and has never seen a major breakthrough since then. Until now, because the recent events at Twitter have caused tens of thousands of people to register every day.

Twitter and Mastodon: The Similarities and Differences

Twitter and Mastodon are very similar, but there are also major differences. You can write messages on both platforms and attach an image to them. On Twitter that is tweets and on Mastodon toots. You can follow each other, use hashtags, share each other’s posts, all on your iPhone and iPad.

A big difference is that Mastodon is a decentralized social network and works with ‘instances’. This is where many Twitter users give up because it sounds too complicated. Still, that’s okay.

Twitter can be seen as one big village square where everyone can have their say. Mastodon consists of several squares. Some big, some small. Each square has its own rules for what is allowed. That’s quite disorienting, but it’s good to know that if you set up your seat in one square, you can still read the messages from people in the other squares.

Which app should I have for Mastodon?

Let’s start with the app. The most logical choice is the official Mastodon app. This is a great place to introduce yourself to this social network.

Please note that the team behind this app is not nearly as large as, for example, Twitter or Facebook, so you can expect updates much less often. The Mastodon app got its last update four months ago at the time of writing. Then the app icon got a new color.

There are also good unofficial apps in the App Store that get more frequent updates. Toot! is a good option, but this app costs 4.99 euros. To try the service, it is therefore better to download the free official app.

Create account and choose server

As soon as you open the app you can create an account and then you will immediately be faced with a difficult choice: you have to choose a square. Such a square is called a server or instance. Where you register depends on what interests you. There are servers with only Dutch people and servers with specific interests.

The largest servers at the moment are mstdn.social and mastodon.online. This is where most of the users are. If you register there, you will be the closest to Twitter.

It is important to know that you do not limit yourself by registering an account on a server, because everything is connected. That means you can also follow people on other servers. You can also transfer your entire account to another server without losing your followers.

All in all, choosing the right server is not that important. Choose one, complete your account and post toots and follow people. It’s that simple.

What is the fediverse?

One term you may come across on Mastodon is the fediverse. This is an umbrella term for decentralized platforms and services that can communicate with each other because they use the same network rules. You cannot follow someone on Facebook with Twitter, because these platforms are completely separate from each other. With Mastodon and other fediverse apps, you can.

Is Mastodon really going to be the new Twitter?

It is doubtful that Mastodon is the real successor to Twitter. The service is just too complicated and unstable for that. However, Mastodon is currently the biggest contender to become a large platform, because many users go there and many connections are formed. This beginner’s guide to Mastodon will at least get you started!

Delete Twitter

Do you like Mastodon so much and do you really want to get away from Twitter? We explain how to delete your Twitter account.