Twitter’s been making headlines for all the wrong reasons of late post Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform. It would appear that many users are unhappy with the changes introduced by the new CEO and some are even taking off to platforms like Mastodon. Of course, Musk insists that the platform is seeing very high usage in the past two weeks. But if you are one of those and are looking for alternatives to Twitter, here’s a look at the options:
Koo
Koo claims it’s got over 5 crore users
Indian microblogging platform Koo has now garnered over 1 crore downloads on the Google Play Store, and is perfect for those looking for a Twitter-like app with a desi twist. The app and platform are very much inspired by Twitter, only it goes big on regional languages. The platform’s already got a large catalogue of official Indian news publications on it as well along with some Indian government handles as well. And there’s a host of Indian celebrities for you to follow too.
Kutumb
Kutumb likes to promote itself a Reddit-like platform
Kutumb is a social network for communities, much like Reddit. The app lays a heavy emphasis on local languages, with a lot of the discourse on it being in 8 local languages including Hindi, Marathi, and Gujarati. The app also offers a Suvichar feature that lets you share an inspiring daily quote with friends and family.
Mastodon
Mastodon’s got a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, the experience is rewarding
Mastodon gains the top spot in this list for good reason. The open-source network has crossed 10 lakh users in the past few days, according to its lead developer and CEO Eugen Rochko. Its minimal user interface (UI) looks like something of a cross between old Facebook and Twitter, and the platform is a bit more open when it comes to posts. You get a 500-character limit, for one.
But the one thing you’d want to wrap your head around is the fact that, unlike Twitter and Facebook, Mastodon takes a decentralised approach. The platform is a collection of thousands of individual social networks with their own servers that use the same Mastodon technology. The problem is if the server you are on gets deleted, so does your account. The sign-up process is also not like your average social platform.
Tribel
Tribel offers a sleek, modern user interface
Tribel takes a unique approach in that you can choose a target audience for your posts – and those reach the selected audience immediately. The platform also allows you to customize your news feed easily. There’s no endless scrolling here too, and the Trending and Breaking feeds show you the newest, most popular posts for any topic. The platform is often touted as a Twitter spawn and has gained the reputation of having a left-leaning user base, making it the polar opposite of Truth Social and its right-leaning users. In fact, reports claimed Musk planned to buy Tribel next, a claim that the app then denied on its Twitter feed.
Cohost
Cohost is currently not available as an app, so you’d have to use its site
A platform still in its infancy, Cohost was launched only in February by a small team of developers, and promises no ad tracking or sneaky algorithms. It’s got a blog-like feel to it, much like Facebook, and posts fall in a vertically-scrolling timeline. There’s also no character limit here. The only catch here is that Cohost isn’t free right now, with its site saying “you can give us a few bucks a month to help us keep the lights on.” However, the platform plans on changing that to a tips + subscription model in the future.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘444470064056909’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
