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The State of Mastodon Clients on iOS.md

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+# The State of Mastodon Clients on iOS
+
+[Notes Draft](drafts5://open?uuid=A831B815-C12C-4A00-BCFF-D88B7F0E05AC)
+
+![Mast Details](https://i.snap.as/UsH95qJv.png)
+
+## A survey of third-party Mastodon apps on iOS.
+
+I must confess: I have been _meaning_ to write this app guide since even before I [interviewed Mastodon creator Eugen Rochko](https://bilge.world/eugen-rochko-interview) on the morning of his Big Press Day, just over 4 years ago. I’ve exhaustively explored different means of convincing my own longtime Twitter friends to move, over that time, with very little success. Eugen, himself, published an [official blog post](https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2021/02/developing-an-official-ios-app-for-mastodon/) at the beginning of February detailing his plans to open up onboarding by way of “an official Mastodon app that is free to download and that is specialized in helping new users get started on the platform.” As a Patreon supporter of [The Mastodon Project](https://www.patreon.com/mastodon) (full disclosure,) I can tell you that progress is good, but we shouldn’t expect to see a release version of the app for the remainder of this year. That said, I thought it might be worth going over the third-party options iOS users currently have available to them, largely because the offerings are each innovative and mature applications in their own right. Also, it’s become quite apparent that the normal tech media sources you’d go to for such a guide aren’t going to give Mastodon the attention it deserves.
+
+First, let’s begin with The Big 6 - those apps The Mastodon Project, itself, has seen fit to [list on joinmastodon.org](https://joinmastodon.org/apps).
+
+https://youtube.com/watch?v=LdBFMibyh3Y
+
+### [Toot!](https://apps.apple.com/app/toot/id1229021451)
+
+Dag Ågren‘s [Toot!](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/toot/id1229021451) is not only my personal app of choice - I would (and have) go so far as to say it’s the single most innovative mobile social app I’ve ever encountered, largely because of its jacknife-esque instance switching function. It’s held a place in my phone’s dock since the day I first downloaded it, for this and many other reasons.
+
+![Toot! Themes](https://i.snap.as/bXG5SAUv.png)
+
+Ultimately, Toot! is extremely beautiful (despite its unfortunate name,) and I am quite superficial in my taste. It’s Obsidian theme (which may or may not be related to the topical notetaking system of the same name) is especially gorgeous. With its custom notification sounds (a commonly-overlooked feature in iOS apps, generally, in my opinion,) Toot!’s notifications are also my favorite of these by far.
+
+![Toot! Settings](https://i.snap.as/30YJR456.png)
+
+In my experience, it’s also the most robust of the lot - as in, it is very much the exception rather than the norm to encounter any sort of error or other obstruction in normal, day-to-day use. My own real reservation applies to the entire selection discussed today: I wish Toot! supported Bluetooth keyboard shortcuts.
+
+![Mast for iOS](https://i.snap.as/KF4Slx39.png)
+
+### [Mast](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mast-for-mastodon/id1437429129)
+
+I originally had high hopes for Shihab Mehboob‘s [Mast](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mast-for-mastodon/id1437429129) - which used to look very different from the way it does, today. That’s almost certainly to do with its ownership [changing hands](https://twitter.com/jpeguin/status/1354854403124178947) at some point (no, I do not have any further details on that story, unfortunately.) That’s not to say the current app isn’t a worthwhile offering, it’s just far less _visually ambitious_ than the original I remember. However, it’s also significantly more reliable.
+
+![Amaroq for iOS](https://i.snap.as/JV5vzmky.png)
+
+### [Amaroq](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/amarok-for-mastodon/id1214116200)
+
+The Original… Genesis… If Amaroq was not the first Mastodon app on the App Store, it’s certainly the oldest to survive. Its GitHub Repository’s [first commit](https://github.com/ReticentJohn/Amaroq/commit/9648ebdecf8ab20819ba10fe18b6317a8026fd86) dates back to April 17th, 2017.  While you’re there, you might note that it’s the only one of these entries coded entirely in Objective-C - the near-40-year-old language originally underpinning iOS before Swift’s birth in 2014. Amaroq was the first Mastodon app I used and remains the strongest free option for iOS users. It’s been nearly a year since its last update, so its missing a few narrower functions like Bookmarking and Polls, but the core features it _does_ include are rock solid. The only wild card: what the fuck is Awoo Mode???
+
+![iMast for iOS](https://i.snap.as/7A9pJMzD.png)
+
+### [iMast](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/imast/id1229461703)
+
+For better or worse, [@rinsuki](https://mstdn.rinsuki.net/@rinsuki)’s iMast will require either a basic grasp of the Japanese language, or the patience to translate its menus and work backwards. (OCR came to mind, but I’m not quite dedicated enough to try it for this guide.) Assuming [Google’s translation](https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:64ce057e-5adc-4578-a0ef-e9ddb6b5d545) of [its GitHub Pages site](https://cinderella-project.github.io/iMast/) is correct, iMast is also Open Source “under the Apache License 2.” Unlike Amaroq, it appears to have been built in Swift from the ground up.