You don't need to use the official Mastodon apps, they're not the best way to use Mastodon. The official apps only arrived last year, and they were intended as "Fisher Price My First Mastodon" things with a restricted set of features.
Third party apps have been around longer than official ones, and include way more features. You can sign in with the same account on all apps.
On Android try Tusky, Fedilab, Megalodon, Tooot
On iPhone/iPad, try Toot!, Ice Cubes, Ivory, Mona
@alcryptoy @feditips most of the alternative desktop experiences seem to be web apps like https://elk.zone/
Though I think @ivory might have a desktop app if you're on Mac
Yeah, Elk is a good alternative web interface if you don't like the official one.
@feditips @dwgill @alcryptoy @ivory Also great for people coming from Twitter like me. I find Twitter's UI to be simpler and more concise than even Mastodon's web client.
Side note: I prefer web apps(even more for PWAs) for these kind of things
@feditips @dwgill there's also @phanpy which provides quite opinionated, but nice experience https://phanpy.social/
The desktop website interface is really good, and has two different modes.
By default it has a single-column mode, but you can switch it to a Tweetdeck-style multicolumn mode too.
More info on switching it to advanced at https://fedi.tips/how-to-activate-mastodons-tweetdeck-style-advanced-web-interface/
I just log straight into the website (wandering(.)shop) with Firefox - it's just another tab and works a treat. (And yes, I have all four columns showing.)
Even on my phone I don't use an app - just log in from the website.
I'm glad you found something that works for you! 😃 I only mentioned it because we are so used to thinking everything has to be an app - nope, not necessarily! 😄
@feditips Tusker is also great on iPhone/iPad
Tusker is a free and flexible client for the Mastodon social network and other compatible services. Features: • Notification grouping: Combine favorite, boost, and follow notifications into a single row to get a more glance-able view of your notifications. • Timeline sync: Keep your timeline positi…
It's still pretty experimental isn't it?
I will have to take a look!
I just did a review of Tusky listing pros and cons 😁
https://fedi.tips/tusky-for-android/
Haven't done reviews for other Android apps yet, but will try to gradually do so.
I'm trying to gradually do brief reviews of third party apps, I've only done three so far though:
Tusky for Android
https://fedi.tips/tusky-for-android/
Toot! for iOS
https://fedi.tips/toot-for-iphone-ipad/
Ice Cubes for iOS
https://fedi.tips/ice-cubes-for-iphone-ipad/
I'll try to add more.
Great!
Generally, if a setting is missing in an app, the website will have it. The website has pretty much everything first.
What I would find even nicer is a specific recommendation, like "If you are new to Mastodon, and want a place to start, right now is I'd suggest X."
Add all the caveats you want, but for most people the problem with Mastodon is too many choices. Your informed opinion is more valuable than a list of options.
True, but still some way to catch up. No hashtag following for example :/
The official web UI's pre-release has them but it hasn't gone to release yet. Some servers use pre-release version of Mastodon, so that may be why you see these threads.
Third party apps can choose how they display threads themselves, for example Toot! for iOS has had London Underground style thread maps for many years now.
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