A new Mastodon app called Mammoth has already gained 10,000 downloads in the first few days of its availability on the App Store. The app was created by a team that includes developer of the Aviary app for Twitter, who was among those unceremoniously killed by Twitter earlier this year after new owner Elon Musk decided the ecosystem of Broader applications no longer needed third-party Twitter clients. .
The move left long-standing Twitter apps down, but prompted several app developers to turn to the open-source, decentralized social network Mastodon instead. Last month, for example, the maker of popular Twitter client Tweetbot launched a new Mastodon app called Ivory, after Elon Musk’s API changes wiped out the company’s Twitter-focused predecessor without warning.
Now Mammoth is entering the market to give users another option.
Unlike Ivory, which is an attempt to build a business to replace the losses of Tweetbot’s shutdown, Mammoth – for now, at least – is free with no in-app purchases. However, the company said it plans to eventually offer a subscription version of Mammoth and its community, moth.social, but hasn’t worked out the details yet.
In the meantime, its short-term goal is to drive adoption of Mastodon, the company explained in a blog post.
Picture credits: Mammoth
“…we don’t believe our subscription will be a paywall or that free users will get a read-only version of the app or moth.social. Simply: we want to contribute to Mastodon by having 10 million active users, then 100 million. It’s still early days, and we don’t want to do anything that will slow down adoption,” writes Mammoth co-founder Bart Decrem. “Therefore, we’ll probably have a subscription, but that won’t stop you from enjoying the app if you don’t pay. We don’t have all the details or the timeline yet.”
At launch, the Mammoth app offers access to a wide range of core features, such as the ability to browse and switch between Mastodon timelines; post content, including text, images, GIFs, polls; use features such as private messages, lists and bookmarks; change app icon and theme; activate a dark mode; access multiple accounts; and even cancel messages with a custom duration, similar to Twitter. There are plenty of gestures and customization options to make Mammoth feel personalized to you.
Picture credits: Mammoth
The app also has a full set of less common features, such as tools for creating threads, picture-in-picture for pinning messages to your screen, tools for viewing media in AR, sentiment analysis tools, the ability to hide replies, translation tools while in composition, and more. As an iOS app, users can take advantage of features like Siri Shortcuts, Face ID and Touch ID, sharing extensions, and VoiceOver support. The app will soon be coming to macOS as well, the company notes.
What’s potentially more interesting than all the bells and whistles of Mammoth is its approach to user onboarding.
Choosing a server has often been considered one of the hardest parts of setting up on Mastodon. This adds a layer of complexity to the setup process when users expect to be able to simply create a username and password like they are used to on other social networks. But joining a server is part of what it means to participate in Mastodon and the larger group of interconnected servers known as Fediverse, so it can’t be circumvented.
Picture credits: Mammoth
To make this process easier, Mammoth features a streamlined user interface that guides users through the account setup process, including creating their profile. It also addresses the issue of who to follow on Mastodon by presenting an interface for finding suggested users across all categories, something Twitter also did at the time.
Picture credits: Mammoth
Mammoth launched just a few days ago, but its 10,000 installs indicate that consumer demand for Mastodon apps continues to exist, despite the competitive landscape that includes the official Mastodon client and a number of apps third parties, including the new Ivory from Tapbots.
While consumer interest in Mastodon may have waned since Musk’s takeover of Twitter, interest in the wider Fediverse continues to grow.
Prior to Musk’s Twitter deal, the Fediverse – which includes Mastodon and a range of other social apps – had north of 570,000 monthly users. Today, the network has about 2.57 million. Businesses are also starting to take notice. The owner of Tumblr talked about adopting the same protocol that powers Mastodon and Flickr considered the same. Last month, blogging site Medium gained a foothold in Fediverse with the launch of its own community.
Mammoth is optimistic about the potential of the Fediverse and that of a decentralized internet in general.
The company says it will open its code in addition to operating its own instance, and ultimately aims to make Mastodon easier for the next 10 million users and then the next 100 million. That’s a lofty goal, given that Twitter itself only had 237.8 million monetizable daily active users in the last quarter it reported as a public company, compared to 2 billion. Facebook’s daily active users by most recent earnings. It remains to be seen whether or not a group of decentralized apps will be able to carve out a large enough niche in the shadow of the tech giants. But it’s arguably a more promising development than Web3, which squandered consumer trust by allowing scammers and pyramid schemes to proliferate.
Mammoth is a free download for iPhone and iPad and will soon be available on Mac.
