Twitter users (and ex-users) are still watching to see what the next chapter will be in the soap opera called \u201cWhat Elon Musk will do with Twitter next.\u201d (While this was being written, the latest drama was the institution of paywalls<\/a> and the blocking of unregistered users<\/a>. And that\u2019s only the latest.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you\u2019re becoming bored with the whole thing, and you want to continue following social networking without having to deal with Twitter, where do you go? <\/p>\n<\/div>\n While, at least so far, nothing has become the byword that Twitter became, there are a number of services that are currently vying for the title of \u201cTwitter Alternative of the 2020s.\u201d So far, most don\u2019t have the size and scale of Twitter, and it\u2019s hard to say if any of them will attract enough followers to give it a run for its money. In fact, it\u2019s possible that nothing will become the combined news \/ gossip \/ conversation \/ spam source that Twitter was.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Some of them ape the real-time feed of Twitter, but most provide a different take on what a social network can look like. Depending on what you get out of Twitter \u2014 perhaps you use it to broadcast your work, or maybe you use it to keep up with news events, or maybe you use it to connect with other Twitter users \u2014 you might prefer some of these options over others. But take a look and see if any seem worth checking out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The latest of the Twitter wannabes, Threads has started with a couple of advantages \u2014 it hasn\u2019t started with an invite-only introduction, and it is an outcrop of Instagram. If you already have an Instagram account, you don\u2019t even have to register; you simply log in using your Instagram account (and you can get to Threads by going to your Instagram profile and looking for the curly icon at the top). It has familiar icons for like, comment, and share; you can also repost and quote another entry. And according to a support page, some settings apply to both apps \u2014 so if you delete your Threads account, you\u2019re deleting your Instagram account as well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Posts can be up to 500 characters in length; you can add links and photos as well as videos up to five minutes long. You can delete an entry but not edit it, and you can limit who can reply to your entries (but as of this writing, you could not control what or who appeared in your feed). When this was being written, you could only access Threads via an iOS<\/a> or Android<\/a> app. Whether it will be the Twitter alternative has yet to be seen; certainly, it has managed to generate a good amount of excitement during its first days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Mastodon is often cited as the most likely replacement for Twitter, although there are very distinct differences. You don\u2019t join Mastodon per se; you join a specific server (also known as an instance) run by an organization, individual, or group of individuals. The moderation policies are determined by each group (although there are basic moderation policies that apply to all the servers). However, you\u2019re not limited to a single server; you can follow people or have followers from other servers, and you can change servers \u2014 or create your own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n On Mastodon, you post toots rather than tweets (although the usage of that term has pretty much fallen out of fashion) with a 500-character limit per post; you can attach images, a video, or an audio file, and you can edit your posts after they are published. Hashtags are encouraged to help people find your content, and there are apps for iOS and Android devices. (There is also a site with a bunch of tips<\/a>, Mastodon\u2019s help site<\/a>, and a variety of other places to find help. ) <\/p>\n<\/div>\n To sign up, you go to https:\/\/joinmastodon.org\/<\/a> and click on \u201cCreate account\u201d or on the Servers link at the top of the page to choose which server you want to sign up for. You can also go to Fedi.Garden<\/a>, which offers what it describes as an \u201ceasy and stress-free way of choosing a Fediverse server.\u201d You can choose to search by topic and \/ or language. Some will let you join immediately; others have waitlists. You can join a larger, generalized instance such as mastodon.social or mstdn.social, or you can opt for a more specified instance such as graphics.social or disabled.social.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Reddit is a well-known network that has been around for quite a while. The site is modeled off of classic message boards, and so doesn\u2019t look or act the same as a Twitter feed \u2014 instead, it is divided into subgroups, known as subreddits, and you can join whatever subreddit piques your interest \u2014 anime, crochet, Star Wars, sci-fi literature, or whatever flavor of politics, religion, or social topics you may want to chat about. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n There can be more than one subreddit handling a different aspect of a topic or that has a different type of moderation. Each subreddit has its own rules, and the moderator can kick you out if you don\u2019t adhere to them. You start a topic, and the discussion on that topic is threaded; you can upvote or downvote a topic or one of the entries in a topic. Because the interface is threaded, there can be discussions in which an author answers questions about a book or a tech expert helps with problems. But Reddit is big, so expect to spend some time exploring before you find your communities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Note that Reddit has been having its own issues recently. A sudden increase in its API pricing led to a protest by many of its users<\/a>; despite that, a large number of its third-party apps are now going dark<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bluesky is still officially in invite mode, which admittedly can be frustrating for folks who don\u2019t have friends of friends with invites, but it is only a matter of time \u2014 through word of mouth, the app is slowly becoming filled with ex-Twitterers who, for whatever reason, are not comfortable with the other alternatives. (Although I know at least several, myself included, who have been bouncing between Bluesky and Mastodon like a tennis ball.) <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Like Mastodon, Bluesky has been developed to be a decentralized social network, but unlike Mastodon, new users are currently being steered toward a single iteration. The interface is very Twitter-like, which isn\u2019t surprising since Bluesky was originally funded by Twitter itself<\/a>. There are apps available for both iOS<\/a> and Android<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Cohost is a new social network that is still developing. Anyone can sign up, but you may have to wait a day or two before you can actually post (which, according to the FAQ<\/a>, is a spam prevention measure); you can, however, look around. (It only took about 24 hours for me to be activated.) <\/p>\n<\/div>\n As with Twitter, you follow the posts of other people; however, entries are always shown in the order they were posted rather than via any kind of algorithmic listing. Pages are specific to their users (although they can have more than one editor), and you can request to follow someone\u2019s page (or someone can request to follow yours). In either case, the request must be approved. You can also search on (and bookmark) hashmarked tags if you\u2019re looking for a specific topic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n CoHost Plus, which costs $5 a month or $50 a year, offers an expanded upload limit and upcoming customization features.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tumblr \u2014 which launched in 2007 and has gone through its fair share of corporate owners \u2014 is more a series of blogs rather than a discussion social network per se. You can easily scroll through the latest entries of all the people you follow; click on the entry to see (and participate in) any discussions. Each entry is text, image, or video-based; followers can then discuss the entries via attached notes. You can also reblog (in other words, put the entry into your feed) or share the entry to other services.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A number of new features have been added over the past year, including livestreaming<\/a> via Tumblr Live<\/a>. Unlike the previous services, Tumblr does have advertising, although you can get rid of the ads for $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Discord is more an invitational discussion service than a free-for-all social network. It is made up of separate servers that allow participants to participate in text discussions, video and voice calls, and exchange files; the interface can be heavily tweaked by the administrators depending on how they want to handle permissions, discussions, icons, etc. In other words, Discord can be a very useful tool, especially in the hands of someone who is reasonably tech-savvy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you download the Discord app (which is available for both desktops and mobile devices), you can list as many of the groups you belong to as you like on the left side of the screen. For example, if you\u2019ve got a server from your company, a fan club, or a group of friends, you can easily click from one to the other.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Spill is very much a work in progress. It has a waitlist (which you can join here<\/a>), but if my experience is anything to go by, you won\u2019t have to wait long. According to an article in AfroTech<\/em><\/a>, the site has been built by two ex-Twitter employees to create a safe space for diverse communities. In order to do this, when you do join, you are asked for your name, phone number, birth date, email address, phone number, and zip code (not optional) as well as how you identify (optional). Entries have a 90-character limit, and you can add photos, videos, GIFs, and links; text overlaps the images, giving the interface a more visual feel. Currently, it is available via Mac and iOS apps<\/a> only (the iOS app looks a lot better).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Another new service, Post concentrates on news content in an interesting fashion. The idea is that you can \u201cdiscover, read, watch, discuss and share premium news content without subscriptions or ads.\u201d Instead, if you want to read an article that\u2019s normally behind a firewall, you can pay for that specific article. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Post works on a point system. You are given 50 points when you join, and you can use them to either read a paywalled article or to reward a creator whose post(s) you like. Each point is worth one cent and is kept in a virtual wallet; you purchase more for a small added fee (for example, purchasing 300 points costs $4.20). The cost of reading an article can vary widely: for example, a USA Today<\/em> article costs 1 point, and a Reuters<\/em> article costs 3 points, while articles from Fortune<\/em> had price tags of 59 and 69 points. (Individual creators can also turn their posts into paid content.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Meanwhile, the social networking angle consists of people either commenting on articles or adding links to articles (in those cases, it works the same way as other social networks, taking you out of Post and to the site where the link originates).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n One of the reasons that Musk may have gotten so peeved about Substack last April<\/a> appears to be its introduction of Notes<\/a>, a social networking add-on to its blogs and other content. Notes is, according to Substack<\/a>, \u201ca new space where you can publish short-form posts and share ideas with other writers and readers on Substack\u201d \u2014 in short, a social network sitting alongside Substack\u2019s longer content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You access Notes via a tab on the Substack site; once there, you can start a note and add up to six images or GIFs to it. You can also like, comment on, \u201crestack\u201d (in other words, republish), or share other posts \u2014 basically, the same way you are able to like, comment on, and share Substack articles and blogs. You can use the @ sign to mention other Substack writers as well. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Spoutible is one of the more Twitter-like of the new social networks. Aptly, it uses a whale \/ ocean metaphor throughout: you \u201cspout\u201d your opinion instead of posting it; you go to a section called Making Waves to see what topics are currently popular; and for the few seconds it takes to go from one section to another, you get an animation of a whale disappearing into the sea. Like Twitter, you have a profile page, you follow and are followed, and you have a timeline and can do one-to-one chats. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n On Spoutible\u2019s About Us<\/a> page, it expresses its determination to take diversity and privacy seriously while mitigating harassment and other problems endemic to social networking. The network already had its first challenge in that area when it ran into problems with some members of the romance community<\/a>. On the other hand, the site is consistently making improvements to its interface and now has an Android app<\/a>. (Although the iOS app is still to come.) Spoutible is free (although it does ask for contributions) and available to try.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n CounterSocial is the first social networking app I came across that also includes a VR aspect (which it calls Counter Realms). But if you want to keep to the basics, then this social network boasts on its front page that it doesn\u2019t allow trolls, ads, or fake news \u2014 and has a long list of measures it takes to promote privacy and security, including identity breach alerts, real-time fake news awareness via FactLayer<\/a>, and no third-party tracking. If you want, you can try out Alfred, CounterSocial\u2019s GPT-3 AI feature. There are apps for both Android<\/a> and iOS<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You have a choice of UIs: the Advanced Mode works via a series of columns rather than the traditional feed; if you\u2019ve ever used Tweetdeck, you\u2019ve got a fair idea of what it looks like. You can use each column to follow different hashtags or user lists. You can pin columns in their place or move them around the interface and arrange notifications for replies or new entries. The alternative Simplified Mode offers a single feed, more like Twitter or Facebook. There is also a chat link for support and conflict resolution. The social network is free; a Pro account costs $4.99 a month and includes additional security, access to other feeds such as traffic radio and news videos, and entry into Counter Realms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n WT.Social is a fairly straightforward social network that advertises itself as \u201cthe non-toxic social network.\u201d WT stands for \u201cWikiTribune,\u201d which was apparently a previous iteration of the site; it is hosted on GitHub. The interface is very Facebook-like, with a central feed; you can follow people (\u201cfriends\u201d) or topics (\u201csubwikis\u201d), and if you don\u2019t find a subwiki that deals with a topic you\u2019re interested in, you can create your own. You can add images or videos to your posts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you are looking for an alternative to Twitter, you probably don\u2019t need to be told about Facebook, and if you\u2019re not on Facebook, that\u2019s likely intentional. But as my colleague Monica Chin mentions in her how-to on quitting Twitter<\/a>, \u201cThere are a lot of horrible, terrible, no good, very bad things about Facebook. But if you miss the ability to keep up with family and friends on Twitter, you can do that on Facebook, too.\u201d It is true that despite the algorithm-powered feeds, the frequent advertising, and the possible privacy violations, there are still a lot of people \u2014 often family members \u2014 who still use Facebook. And there it is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There are a number of other social networking resources out there, of course; we\u2019ve only touched on a few here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The point is \u2014 no social network is forever (such as the late lamented Compuserve, the pre-MySpace Friendster, and the yes-it-is-still-there-sort-of AOL). Twitter has definitely had a strong influence on community discourse over the last few years; we\u2019ll have to see whether it will retain that influence under this new chapter and, if not, what will replace it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Update July 6th, 2023, 10:22AM ET: <\/strong>This article was originally published on November 1st, 2022; since then, Substack Notes, Post, Spoutible, Bluesky, Threads, and Spill have been added, and some of the other entries have been updated. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nOther alternatives<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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