You should know these Twitter alternatives

After Elon Musk took over Twitter at the end of October 2022, users were concerned that Musk could exert too much influence on the social media platform. Because just like Musk was involved on the platform before the takeover, he’s also doing it afterwards – now just behind the scenes. The desire for a decentralized alternative with fewer bots and advertising is also growing among users. Because the fear of spreading hate speech under the guise of free speech is increasing. More and more users are deleting their accounts and want to move.

In this article, we will introduce you to six alternative apps that you can use instead of Twitter – so that you can delete your Twitter account.

mastodon is a microblogging service that is growing in popularity. The open source platform was founded by Eugen Rochko in 2016. Unlike Twitter, Mastodon is not based on one platform but on different servers, making it a decentralized network. On Mastodon you can send short messages with a length of up to 500 characters. You can also share pictures, videos and links with your followers. Visually, Mastodon is similar to Twitter and its dark themes are reminiscent of the popular Tweetdeck. The messages are called “Tröts” after Mastodon’s mascot, because the platform was named after the mammoth-like primeval animal. Mastodon can be downloaded from Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store.

Note: Also t3n is with its own instance at Mastodon.

Bluesky is a decentralized, Twitter-initiated social media project. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has provided financial support to the network and is a member of the board of directors. In 2019 he announced the development of a new decentralized protocol to operate independent and free social media platforms. In 2022, Bluesky made itself independent of Twitter as a network. Basically, Bluesky is a stripped down version of Twitter. You can get a username and an @ handle. On your profile page you have a profile picture, a background, a description and you can find numbers about your followers and the accounts you follow. Your posts can be up to 256 characters and include photos. You can also reply to, retweet, like, and flag other people’s posts.

The use of an AT protocol is intended to ensure the decentralization of the platform. The only drawback: Although the app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store as usual, you need an invitation code to be able to use Bluesky. The exclusivity not only helps poach disappointed Twitterers. The flight from trolls, bots and hate speakers should also drive the platform into exclusivity. If you don’t want to wait for the invitation link, you can go to the site of the network on a waiting list and hope for an invitation to the beta version.

The platform Reddit was founded in 2005 by Alexis Ohanian, Steven Huffman and Aaron Swartz. Reddit was also an open source project until 2017. Here you can share texts and links with other users. The posts of others can also be rated or commented on. Reddit can seem a bit complicated at first, as the design doesn’t follow the latest standards and the interface is less intuitive than Twitter’s. Reddit is organized into sub-forums that users subscribe to and then post to. In addition, contributions can be evaluated with an “upvote” or a “downvote”. The more upvotes a post has, the more prominent it will be featured on the platform and may even end up on the front page of Reddit.

Also countersocial is an open source project. The network was founded in 2017 by The Jester, an anonymous US hacker. Countersocial was initially created as an “instance” in Mastodon with the goal of creating a troll-free, bot-free, and minimalistic environment. In 2018, Countersocial separated from Mastodon. The social media network offers you the opportunity to write messages, watch live streams or stream them yourself, use video chats and form your own communities. You can filter posts by topic, hashtags, or user. You can comment, share and like posts.

Artifact is a bit different from the apps presented so far, because it is not a pure social media platform, but more of a news aggregator. Users receive a personalized news feed from articles from various media. Nevertheless, the news app has a social component because you can write comments. The app is free to use. Artifact was founded by Instagram founders Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom. The app wants to use AI to understand the wishes and interests of its users, create a personalized newsfeed and make it possible to discuss the articles with friends and other readers. The articles can be commented on, rated, shared and saved. You can download the app from Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store.

It’s no surprise that Meta is also in the running for the new Twitter. At the beginning of March 2023 it became known that the Facebook parent was working on a Twitter alternative based on the decentralized mastodon protocol Activity Pub, which was to be launched under the Instagram brand. The app is intended to be text-based and decentralized. The text messages should contain a maximum of 500 characters and can be supplemented with links, photos and videos. It is currently unclear whether Instagram Twitter will be integrated into the existing app or whether a separate app is planned. The name of the app has not yet come to light. P92, according to the working title, shouldn’t be. A leak recently showed what Instagram’s Twitter could look like.

There isn’t (yet) a Twitter alternative to which everyone is moving. However, there are some apps that come close to the original and offer a good alternative for frustrated Twitter users. Some are even ahead in terms of decentralization.