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Mastodon, an open-source Twitter alternative, is now available as a free download on Android through the Google Play Store.
Mastodon is a decentralized competitor to Twitter that, according to its official website, has over 4.4 million users worldwide. Mastodon’s decentralization is one of the main reasons for its rise in popularity since its introduction in 2016. It is primarily reliant on micro and interest groups housed on separate servers.
For those concerned with their privacy, this means there is no “primary” timeline or database, although this comes at the expense of several key functions and features seen on other social networks. Mastodon for Android, on the other hand, offers no advertisements and a 500-character post restriction.
How does Mastodon work?
Mastodon has provided an easy to understand animation to break down some of the harder to know concepts around decentralisation and a what Mastodon hopes to achieve.
Sign of the times
The Mastodon app for Android, in its initial official release, contains all of the fundamental or important functions you’d expect from a social media network, such as alerts, discovery, and community browsing. Unfortunately, it lacks the ability to examine local or federated timelines, unlike other current third-party solutions.
Although there have been multiple third-party clients because Mastodon is an open-source project, it’s the first official Mastodon app to be released on the Google Play Store. Mastodon, like all other social networking applications, is entirely available for free download and use. So, if you’ve been anxious about recent tech news, such as Elon Musk’s latest purchase of nearly 10% of Twitter, now is a good time to give it a shot.
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