Hey, what’s up?
Today, I wanted to talk and share my experience with 7 free and open source social media and apps.
If you’re interested in leaving traditional social media like X and Instagram, or want to use free and open source alternatives to your favorite apps, or wish to use social media that uses ActivityPub and support the Fediverse, then this could be for you.
Let’s go right in!
0- WHY?
I’m not going to go into deep details, but there are many reasons why you might want to choose free and open source alternatives to traditional social media.
- You want to avoid ads.
- You want to avoid paying a subscription for verification.
- You want to avoid power and money hungry, unethical corporations.
- You want decentralization.
- You want to avoid being targeted by AI and data collection.
- You want to avoid hidden algorithms that work against you.
- You want more online privacy.
- You want to be in control of your online data and interactions.
- You want to join the Fediverse and use the ActivityPub protocol.
- You want to use decentralized, free and open source softwares.
- You want to create, customize and be in control of your community.
- etc.
There are probably more reasons to choose free and open sources social medias and applications. Those are the reasons that I personally thought of.
1- MASTODON (TWITTER / X)
Mastodon is a microblogging platform and alternative to Twitter/X that is free, open source and federated. As if right now, I believe it is the most popular platform that is part of the Fediverse and that uses ActivityPub.
So far, I created an account on a popular general instance: mastodon.social and started following a bunch of account. Unfortunately, as I am writing this, I did not find a way to transfer my data from Twitter/X to Mastodon. I hope that I’ll be able to find a solution, as this is my final step before deleting my Twitter/X account.
Personally, I do like writing and sharing some of my thoughts once in a while and like to see what other people and companies are up to.
One important thing to keep in mind is that DMs on Mastodon aren’t encrypted, and I think that’s a common problem with social media that use ActivityPub.
My experience so far is that there’s a bunch of everything, but it is far less popular than Twitter/X. So hopefully, more people will join.
My current goal would be to delete my Twitter/X account and switch fully to Mastodon once I find a way to transfer my old tweets.
You can access Mastodon through its website and also on phone using the official Mastodon app. I haven’t tried any of them, but there are also many Mastodon unofficial apps made by the free and open source community.
2- PIXELFED (INSTAGRAM)
Pixelfed is an image sharing platform and alternative to Instagram that is free, open source and federated. Which means it is part of the Fediverse and uses ActivityPub.
So far, I created an account on a popular general instance: pixelfed.social. I was also able to transfer my image from Instagram to Pixelfed.
Personally, I do not share that many images. In the past, I mostly used Instagram for its chatting and DMs features. Also, one important thing to keep in mind is that, just like Mastodon, DMs on Pixelfed aren’t encrypted.
For these reasons, I’m not so sure if I’m going to use it much in the future. We’ll see.
But if you love sharing images, then Pixelfed might be for you.
You can access Pixelfed through its website and also on phone using Pixeldroid unofficial app available only on F-Droid. The official phone app is still in development, it should be released soon.
3- LEMMY (REDDIT)
Lemmy is a new aggregation, discussion forum and alternative to Reddit that is free, open source and federated. Which means it is part of the Fediverse and uses ActivityPub.
So far, I created an account on a popular general instance: lemmy.world.
I started messing around, and I think it is excellent. Currently, I use it as one of my main source of information because the big headlines usually make it to the top quite every day.
That being said, I feel like the people there are very pro-linux, pro-libre software, etc. It feels a little bit like an echo chamber but hopefully, more communities and people will join and diversify the space a bit.
You can access Lemmy through its website and also on phone, but there aren’t any official Lemmy apps. On mobile, I’m currently using Jerboa that is only available on F-Droid. That being said, there are also many more.
4- PEERTUBE (YOUTUBE / TWITCH)
Peertube is a video platform and alternative to YouTube and Twitch that is free, open source and federated. Which means it is also part of the Fediverse and uses ActivityPub.
So far, I haven’t tried it much, and it doesn’t seem very popular. I think it is probably because the decentralization of video hosting and livestreaming is still very far. These things are, usually, quite expensive and complicated to do.
It is very far, but one of my goal is to move toward this direction, but I’m definitely not ready yet. So we’ll see in the future.
You can access PeerTube through its website and also on phone. There are many unofficial apps that you can find on F-Droid. That being said, I haven’t tried PeerTube much yet.
5- REVOLT (DISCORD / SLACK)
Revolt is a voice chat application and alternative to Discord and Slack that is free and open source.
I wasn’t able to fully test it because I don’t know anybody using it yet. So I couldn’t try the call and DM features.
I was still able to create an account, a profile, a server and mess around with them.
After testing, it feels very much like an uncluttered, unbloated and clean version of Discord.
You can use Revolt through its web app or desktop application. It also has a mobile app. My only issue with it is that it keeps loging me out of the app after some time of inactivity. Probably not the best thing if you want to be up-to-date with your communities.
6- SIGNAL (WHATSAPP / TELEGRAM / FACEBOOK MESSENGER)
Signal is a privacy-focused messaging app and alternative to WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, etc.
Signal is meant to be a chatting app that is fully encrypted and doesn’t save anything about you.
So far, I only created an account and I haven’t really used it.
My only issue with it is that it is very standalone. It feels very much like Telegram and WhatsApp.
For convenience, I usually prefer using chat features that are part of a greater social media. But since encrypted DMs with ActivityPub doesn’t seem to be possible, maybe this app also has its place. Maybe I’d prefer using something like Revolt. We’ll see.
You can use Signal through a desktop application. It also has an official mobile app.
7- LOOPS (TikTok)
Loops is a short-form video platform and alternative to TikTok.
As I am writing this, Loops is still in very early development. In fact, it is currently in early beta for testing purposes. It is not up and running yet, but I still wanted to include it because it will be a replacement to TikTok that is currently on the way. I currently follow it on Mastodon.
Loops is made by the same organization behind Pixelfed.
It will be free, open source and federated. Which means it will use ActivityPub and be part of the Fediverse.
As of right now, Loops isn’t available anywhere unless you’re actually part of the private beta. If you wish to be joining it, here is the link.
BONUS! LIBERAPAY (PATREON)
The last one on the list as a bonus is Liberapay. Liberapay is a donation platform and alternative to Patreon that is free and open source.
The main difference between Liberapay and Patreon is that Liberapay is a non-profit organization and doesn’t take a cut from the donations. So, recipients get the full value of the money donated.
It isn’t really a social media, but I wanted to add it on the list because donations are a common thing among the free and open source communities. So, if you’re going to join such communities or want to contribute, you’ll most likely see Liberapay a bit everywhere because it is often the platform of choice for that particular purpose.
Conclusion
In conclusion, depending on your goals and what you’re trying to achieve, there are many free and open source alternatives to traditional social media. These traditional social medias are usually run by greedy and unethical corporations, while these free and open sources alternatives are usually decentralized and ran by non-profits.
Most of them use the ActivityPub protocol and are part of the Fediverse, which is quite interesting.
As of right now, the downsides are that there are less popular because there are obviously fewer people using them and the notion of instance can be a little confusing in the beginning.
If you’re going to create accounts on federated social medias, I’d first recommend that you do so on popular general instances. Simply to get started and make sure that you’re not going to lose your accounts out of no-where. Over time, when you get more confident, you might think about switching to another server that is more niche or maybe create your own instance.
So that’s pretty much it, I hope this was helpful to you. If this blog was valuable to you, you could consider following me on social media and if you have any thoughts or comments, you can leave them below.
I hope this helps, peace!
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