Although active well before the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk, following the well-known affair Mastodon has become one of the platforms which has attracted more users disappointed by the evolution of the site microblogging.
And the extremely versatile nature of Mastodon has a positive side: there are many apps that can be used to access it, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Mammoth, a solution for iOS, iPadOS And macOSstands out for its extreme ease of use, and now that it has reached version 2 it might be a good idea to try it.
But what distinguishes Mammoth from similar solutions how? First of all, in addition to being free and open sourceis well designed, with the possibility of customize your feed in an automated manner (the feed For you), but above all, as underlined by the co-founder of the app Bart Decrem himself, he wants to make it easier to approach Mastodon.
This is why the Smart Listwhere you will find interesting posts and people and account suggestions to follow.
This solution is very similar to the lists of Twitter, that is, groups of people gathered by topic or interest curated by users and to which you can sign up if interested.
At the moment, Mammoth has a couple dozen, from Space and Nature to Indieweb and Queertech, each of which is curated by a specific Mammoth user, and they offer a great starting point for those just starting out. to explore the platform.
Source: Mammoth
Decrem says he hopes to couple the management and care of Smart List to an artificial intelligence, with the aim, however, of keeping bots away from the service.
But it’s still not enough. Using Mastodon is still complicated for those who are used to a social network where you just need to sign up: you have to choose a server, signing in, find people and fine-tune your own timeline just as you prefer.
According to Decrem, we need to allow people to find interesting content in a minute, and for this reason he is looking carefully at the development of Threads, which brings out people who are not followed to continue to give new life to their feed, while at the same time allowing you to follow them with a touch.
Decrem is excited about the possibility that Threads embraces Activity Pub, and is already thinking of several ways Mammoth can improve the Threads algorithm, which many users hate. In general, for Decrem Mammoth could become an app for exploring the whole fediverse, let it be up Mastodon, Pixelfed or otherwise, curating and allowing you to customize the various feeds and make sure there is always something interesting to see.
If you are interested in the app, this is the changelog of version 2:
- New user interface
- Feed carousel at the top of the screen to quickly navigate through all the feeds and lists you’re interested in
- Dozens of smart lists to quickly find people and conversations to join
- Fully Customizable For You Feed to see all the beautiful things in one place!
- Bug fixes and improvements
Mammoth, available for iOS, iPadOS and macOS, is free, but you can pay 2.99 euros per month or 22.99 euros per year to support development and access some app icons extras, early access to novelty and the ability to suggest features to developers.
For any information, you can find the Mastodon server here and the website here.
