From f19e165f737f63511fc29575efec621bc5e921ca Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: David Blue Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2021 18:10:54 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] #107 --- .../The State of Mastodon Clients on iOS.md | 22 ++++++++++++++----- ... - The State of Mastodon Clients on iOS.md | 1 + 2 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) diff --git a/drafts/The State of Mastodon Clients on iOS.md b/drafts/The State of Mastodon Clients on iOS.md index 647bf2a7..e0a79d6c 100644 --- a/drafts/The State of Mastodon Clients on iOS.md +++ b/drafts/The State of Mastodon Clients on iOS.md @@ -6,11 +6,11 @@ Apple's second virtual World Wide Developer Conference came and went as I wrote this guide - you can metaphorically picture me looking up from my machine having overheard the news of the [2021 Apple Design Award Winners](https://developer.apple.com/design/awards/) announcement. Perusing through them, I saw two I would have voted for, myself: [CARROT Weather](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/carrot-weather/id961390574) - the [beautifully vulgar](https://twitter.com/NeoYokel/status/1368223231111557125), grumpy bitch frontend for your preferred weather information service, and [Craft](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/craft-docs-and-notes-editor/id1487937127) - perhaps the most innovative take on word processing of the past two or three years - listed under "Finalists." (Read: losers.) The most positive personal discovery of (all?) WWDCs: an app called [**Be My Eyes**](https://www.bemyeyes.com/), which "connects blind and low-vision people with sighted volunteers and company representatives for visual assistance through a live video call," along with an exceptionally crafted, cross-device accessible-as-fuck TTS solution called [Voice Dream Reader](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/voice-dream-reader/id496177674). *However*, a double take in games from Genshin Impact and [the fucking *League of Legends* game](https://apps.apple.com/ph/app/league-of-legends-wild-rift/id1480616990) certainly sours the mouth and suggest yet further just how much Apple, Inc. has *sold out*. Also, the fact that [Poolside's app](https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/poolside-fm/id1514817810) made the page at all is incredibly frustrating, despite how cheeky I've found its vaporwave-informed UI fuckery since beta. -I know you almost certainly did not arrive here to hear one motherfucker's complaints about WWDC, but - as with everything Apple, Inc. does - every morsel of curatorial expression/discrimination/favoritism from The Great Money God within this platform *must* be scrutinized and criticized +I know you almost certainly did not arrive here to hear one motherfucker's complaints about WWDC, but - as with everything Apple, Inc. does - every morsel of curatorial expression/discrimination/favoritism from The Great Money God within this platform *must* be scrutinized and criticized. Despite how deeply I've gone into iOS this year, I do not believe myself to be a qualified judge of software design, but I no longer believe Apple to be, either. Regardless of the revenue-related controversies of late, Apple have simply become terrible stewards of the App Store. Scams and blatant intellectual property theft abound, while the majority of the most innovative entries I've ever seen remain entirely obfuscated and uncelebrated by all of Apple. Inc.'s mechanisms. If you required an explanation for the amount of time I've invested into App Guides - a space to which I never would have imagined intentionally bringing *The Psalms* - I hope you can understand. -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.== +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've been testing this app (see preview shots at the very end,) and am quite smitten with it. 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.) ![Masto Mascot iOS Art](https://i.snap.as/Y624NGHM.jpg) @@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ If you didn't know, this seems to have become *my general shit*, for lack of a b > The Open Source/Open Web community continues to struggle with their *brand image* (if you will) in both old and new ways that needlessly alienate (and sometimes obfuscate) some of their most important contributions from the average user. **Technology media has failed in their responsibility to address this issue.** +The blog on which you're reading this, in fact, is federated on ActivityPub. If you so chose, you could be reading it in any client capable of displaying large bodies of text. The crucial point, though, is that *you didn't need to know that* - you could very well go on reading it on the web in total ignorance/apathy regarding Federation. + *Oh boy, here we go...* No. I did not want to say anything ideological - I wanted this Post to function as little more than a pretty screenshot showcase and simple associative list responding to all of the Reddit posts I've seen to the tune of "is there an iPhone app?" As I explored them, however, I was reminded of the sheer creativity the "alternative" software community is capable of. Even the roughest of these considered apps seem unable to be faceless - sorting through the obscene amount of (unlabeled) screenshots accumulated over the past weeks of testing in my Recents folder has been *so* much easier than I thought it would be because of their relentless originality. If you've actually used any iOS applications and/or browsed the singular App Store from which they can be acquired in the past 3-4 years, you're undoubtedly skeptical: what we might have called "feature overlap" at one time has become all but the platform's core ethos. If you're the sort who enjoys screwing around with apps, generally, as I have for the whole of iPhone history, you have grown accustomed to disappointment. https://twitter.com/NeoYokel/status/1402057069927309318 @@ -30,6 +32,8 @@ Regardless of who is to blame, we can all agree that the App Store is currently So, if there's virtually zero chance a new Mastodon user might download one of the apps we're about to consider and find it broken, what practical function remains for this guide? Hopefully, to establish a SEO catch-all for such users from a non-automated source less associated with the project than the official apps list. Those for whom Mastodon is still an unfamiliar subject should find the collected imagery intriguing, hopefully. +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2MSr_7J1GY + ![Mastodon iOS Icon Strip](https://i.snap.as/H25gzEg2.jpeg) ## The Big 6 @@ -38,7 +42,7 @@ My first step in writing this guide was to post [a thread on r/Mastodon](https:/ > Toot is just a joy to use. It has a little too much sometimes (it actually contains little mini games...which really aren't needed), but the experience of using it has some really clever UI twists. -[u/mikepictor](https://www.reddit.com/user/mikepictor/) -Pragmatic Code's [Linky](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/linky-for-twitter-and-mastodon/id438090426) was also mentioned by multiple respondents. It's not a client, but a bridging tool for smoother URL sharing that integrates with iOS' share sheet. I did not have time to try it, myself, but from all accounts, it is an obligatory mention. So too is the GitHub Repository/List I created +Pragmatic Code's [Linky](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/linky-for-twitter-and-mastodon/id438090426) was also mentioned by multiple respondents. It's not a client, but a bridging tool for smoother URL sharing that integrates with iOS' share sheet. I did not have time to try it, myself, but from all accounts, it is an obligatory mention. So too is the [**GitHub Repository/List**](https://github.com/extratone/FediiOS) I created in order to "formally" offer a list with much greater brevity and zero editorialization. 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). @@ -56,7 +60,7 @@ Toot! is extremely beautiful (despite its unfortunate name,) and I am quite supe -In my cacophonous attempt to compare the notifications of all available Mastodon apps simultaneously (found below,) it's worth noting that Toot!'s always came first. Its [charming custom audio alerts](https://whyp.it/t/toot-ios-app-custom-sounds-92997) also make them my favorite by far. +In my [cacophonous attempt](https://mastodon.social/@DavidBlue/106302686196643266) to compare the notifications of all available Mastodon apps simultaneously, it's worth noting that Toot!'s always came first. Its [charming custom audio alerts](https://whyp.it/t/toot-ios-app-custom-sounds-92997) also make them my favorite by far. They're not just cute: in reflection informed by a newly-considered function of these apps - serving as representing M, it occurred to me that **Toot! audio alerts playing from my iPhone have prompted more first-time conversations about Mastodon in the wild than I can count**. (Seriously: they should be considered an onboarding mechanism.) @@ -229,10 +233,16 @@ Obviously, I very much appreciate Zhiyuan writing publicly about his thoughts on ## Get Bent, Big Social -A few universal truths among these apps stand out as obligatory mentions. First - in comparison with their Proprietary, Big Social counterparts - they are all _ridiculously_ **frugal**. Not a one of these apps weighs over 40mb, while minor (unexplained) updates to the official Twitter app often exceed 100mb. +A few universal truths among these apps stand out as obligatory mentions. First - in comparison with their Proprietary, Big Social counterparts - they are all _ridiculously_ **frugal**. Not a one weighs over 40mb, while minor (unexplained) updates to the official Twitter app [often exceed 100mb](https://twitter.com/NeoYokel/status/1393294957352468494). They are all astonishingly **robust** - I did not experience a single crash in the course of normal testing these "alt" social apps- even from the beta builds - while I distinctly remember the official Twitter app crashing several times over this period, even after I deleted and reinstalled it (an accepted maintenance requirement for anyone using it heavily for its entire history.) Also, on the topic of the platform, itself, they are also made absurdly **interoperable** by the ActivityPub standard. + +https://twitter.com/NeoYokel/status/1393294957352468494 +## Continuing to Explore Social Ownership +![Mastodon Account Wordcloud](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/43663476/122717470-43f08a00-d231-11eb-890f-dfa3ff33b65d.png) +This couldn't be "just" an app guide - I think I have thoroughly accepted this, by now, just in time for some conclusionary remarks. Somehow, the subject I originally tackled specifically because I thought it would be quick, rudimentary, and straightforward has become yet another personal journey. It'd feel a bit preposterous to declare any one of these apps to be *life-changing*, but - in every sense of the term, in contemporary, inevitably social media-informed life, they do indeed constitute a form of radical, ideological wellness. Each of them managed to remind me of a different minute delight found within a developer-user dynamic made up of thoughtful and effective minds working to contribute original and valuable experiences, first. Most noteworthy of these little freedoms: the realization that the upcoming "official" Mastodon app along with any future new options are exclusively a positive thing *for the user*... None of these apps were conceived to gobble up market share because the market is fundamentally, inevitably, uncompromisingly *infinitely shared*. I don't know anything about business, but I *do* know that relief from the burden of considering proprietary multivectored development intentions has been personally breathtaking. I can only hope the reciprocal compensation is happening at even a fraction of what it "should" be. +From another essential direction, I hope I have communicated that they're far from curious, "niche" or vanity side projects, now. When I used the term "mature" in introducing this little arena, I very much meant it - these "alt" social clients developed almost exclusively within single-person-led projects now make the Twitter for iOS app look ugly *and* fucking broken. "Giving social networking back to you" has never been more resonant. Yes, it really is Toot!'s "take a break" blue screen, Amaroq's mysterious Awoo mode toggle, iMast's music app integration, Mercury's configurable timelines, Metatext's native solidity, Tootle's custom colors, Tusker's Digital Wellness controls, Dudu's elemental readability, Roma's quiet resurrection of Mast's UI bravado, Stella's utterly bizarre visual departures, Fedi's odd animated UI behaviors, Tootoise's consideration of *pace*, B4X's unfathomable elements, and Oyakodon's adorable rough edges that have made my online life *measurably*... *immensely* better, these past weeks. At the forefront of this perception is undoubtedly the comparatively extensive *control* over my social experience as a user offered by the diversity of mobile experiences these applications offer. -[[Continuing to Explore Social Ownership]] \ No newline at end of file +Those of you who haven't yet signed up for Mastodon: you are missing out. I am being *actually* pampered, now, in World Wide Web terms. You are *so* welcome whenever you're ready - the water is nice and warm, as they say. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/notes/APP Notes - The State of Mastodon Clients on iOS.md b/notes/APP Notes - The State of Mastodon Clients on iOS.md index 9dd7c0c3..356bcc7b 100644 --- a/notes/APP Notes - The State of Mastodon Clients on iOS.md +++ b/notes/APP Notes - The State of Mastodon Clients on iOS.md @@ -135,6 +135,7 @@ ## Notifications * Toot!'s sound notifications always came first, then Mercury. +* [Notification Test Toot](https://mastodon.social/@DavidBlue/106302686196643266) - `https://mastodon.social/@DavidBlue/106302686196643266` ***