What's your favorite Mastodon client for iOS?
I like Toot!. It's mostly accessible, and one nice thing is the ability to change notification sound from that damn TriTone every other app uses. LOL
I used to use MetaText but the developer is apparently taking a break due to health issues. The project is open-source though, so anyone can work on it.
Tusker is another app I like, would use it full-time if there was notification support.
Ivory is another app, this one created by TweetBot for Twitter's developers. I tried to join Ivory's TestFlight last time they opened up more slots, but the beta stayed full for me despite refreshing the page every 30 seconds or so. Apparently others were just super-quick to snatch up the slots.
Mona is another app, but you have to buy Spring to get their TestFlight link. So if you don't have Twitter, too bad unless you wanna buy Spring just to get Mona which is still in early beta. Is it worth it? Maybe if I hear more good things about Mona I might consider getting Spring when I get more cash.
And that brings us to the regular Mastodon app, which honestly was only partially accessible last I tried it. However since Mastodon has a full-featured API, and any app can take full advantage of all it has to offer, if there's a good accessible 3rd party app out there I'll use that.
Comments
The Ivory beta is very hard…
The Ivory beta is very hard to get into. 1,000 slots were gone 13 seconds after they made them available. Full accessibility support definitely not there yet but this is a very early, alpha build from what I understand.
My Preference
Hi Kev,
That is a good question. Here is my observation and thought from my personal preference.
It is a shame that the MetaText is more than likely going to be an abandonware but still a great option for beginners currently. Now I must take this off the list of contenders simply because it is lacking the Mastodon 4 features.
That leaves us Mona for Mastodon (Developer of Spring for Twitter), Tusker, Ivory (developer of TweetBot), Mammoth Official Mastodon, and Toot!. Three of the four items mentioned are still in beta.
I’m going to throw out Mammoth as they did not have accessibility in mind. I am also going to toss out Ivory as I am certain it will be a paid app when it comes out. Ivory is nice but I’m going to suggest people to look at Tusker which I believe will be free of cost. If that is the case, then I am going to suggest current MetaText users to check out Tusker when it comes to the public. As it has more features than MetaText and it looks very similar in design as well. Ivory is a spitting image of Tusker. Even if Tusker is a paid app I still would prefer and suggest Tusker over Ivory.
I am also going to toss out the official Mastodon app. It is simply too clunky and has way too many swiping for my liking. It may be fully accessible but not very efficient for VoiceOver users.
Now let’s talk about Mona for Mastodon. If you are a fan of the Spring for Twitter, then Mona will be your friend. As the developer of Spring for Twitter is making Mona for Mastodon. It looks identical to Spring in every way. It is made for advanced users for sure as you can customize just about everything. It’s a bit hard for beginners as the interface and finding things are not as obvious as like you see in such as MetaText and Tusker. The full version of Spring is also a bit pricey as I’m sure Mona won’t be any different. Do I still think it will be worth the cost? Sure, I do think its worth the price if you are wanting a customizable app for Mastodon. I love my Spring for Twitter and is currently my go to Twitter app of choice. However, there are some missing elements or feature that aren’t in the Spring or Mona that I want.
That leaves Toot!. Toot! Is priced at a lower cost and is currently going to be my go-to recommendation. Based on the price plus I think it satisfy beginners and advanced user alike. The interface is a bit weird but once you understand how each section works and where to find things, I think you will come to love Toot!. Toot! Is going to be easier to understand to use. Toot! Has three huge feature that Mona doesn’t have, and I just keep going back to Toot!. First, is that Toot! Has choices for different notification sounds. It doesn’t sound like much, but it does to me. As I can tell if I get a notification from Toot! Instead of the standard tone you get with the other apps. Although, Tusker is the only other one that offers the same feature, but Tusker is limited to several different tones but still better than any other that doesn’t offer this feature. Second, is that Toot! Is also the only one that I’ve seen that support notification of a user. Meaning, if I want to receive a notification when that user Toot that I will get a notification for. This one is huge for me. Why none of the others support this feature surprises me. Lastly, Toot! Is the only app that allows you to not only have multiple accounts which most if not all support but Toot! Takes this a step further and allows you to have instance that can be viewed without having an account. Which is also a big factor of mine so that I can check out other instance even if I don’t have an account there. Toot! Is also has the feature you can split views. Another word the top half can be my Home timeline and the lower half can say like the Local timeline or even Notification timeline. Again, no one else has that feature.
So, for me it’s 1. Toot!, 2. Mona for Mastodon, 3. Tusker. I’ve tried about 8 others third party Mastodon app but those are the top three that I’ve currently rank them based on my general preference.
So, you can bet that I will be doing a podcast on Toot! And Mona for Mastodon in the coming Future. 😉
- AnonyMouse
The lack of being able to…
The lack of being able to set a notification for a user in the official app really confused me. I ended up using Metatext to set a user notification so that I could see when Ivory announced that they were opening more slots.
Toot! is my pick as well.
Hi,
Toot! is my favorite too.
I've been using it pretty much exclusively for the last month or so.
There are some features I'd like to see, but the developer is super responsive, so I'm sure he'll try to implement them, if we ask.
Features I'd like to see in Toot include:
1. Support for the VoiceOver rotor.
2. Support for action buttons to "favorite/boost a post, without having to open the app.
3. Ability to add your own custom sounds.
4. A mac app
5. An Apple watch app
What do you guys think?
Thomas,
Would you be willing to do a podcast on Toot? I'm not sure how to get some of the features you described to work.
not seeing the test flight link on spring
I have spring for twitter on my phone, however, I'm not seeing the link to join the test flight bayda the dev is putting out for mastidon. Where can this link be found?>
In settings.
Hello,
If you go to Spring, then settings, look near the top of the screen.
It’s there.
Mona
To get the Mona beta, open the Spring app, go to Settings, and then About Spring.
It is still a very early beta, so much so that it even uses Twitter language like Tweet and Retweet. It seems stable though and I’m definitely confident it will be a good app.
Dave
mona looks the best of them.
Absolutely loving mona on the mac.
In saying this, of course the one drawback is that you have to actually own spring for Twitter in order to gain access to the test version.
i have tested tusca which is not too bad but mona at the moment shows much promise.
tusker and notifications?
Hi.
How do you actually make tusker send you notifications?
RE: tusker and notifications?
As of right now in the current beta it doesn't have the option for notification. Remember that this is still in beta and I'm certain it will be included at some point. In the original beta there were some preferences for the notification but in the latest beta it isn't there.
I noticed this thread about…
I noticed this thread about the current accessibility state of the Ivory beta.
https://mastodon.social/@ShellyBrisbin@journa.host/109648973978051229
They opened up the public…
They opened up the public beta of Mona today. Another post of theirs today said it's "Optimized for VoiceOver".
https://mastodon.social/@MonaApp/109857648634172845
Ice Cubes
Ice Cubes is my recommendation. Accessibility has improved significantly. I especially enjoyed the integrated chatgpt for composing toots.
Toot! now supports following hashtags.
Hi,
As of version 21, the toot app now supports the following of hashtags, which show up as links in a post.
Ivory doesn’t yet support audio in posts, as of yet.
Thus, I’ve unsubscribed, at least for now.
audio posting in Tusker?
Can you do audio posting in Tusker?
I hope it's ok for me to…
I hope it's ok for me to bump an old thread. I've starting trying to use Ice Cubes as my primary Mastodon client. I've been really impressed with the AI tool to generate an ALT text description for images. I've found that I usually keep 2/3 of what it generates and usually just add some more context.
status of the Toot! app
Hi
The Toot! app hasn't received an update in a while.
Thus, I'm unsure if its still being actively developed.
Right now, my favorite app for Mastodon is Mona.
I love it for its customizability.