6d ago

Open source alternatives to Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp raise funds on Kickstarter | TechCrunch

techcrunch.com Ditching Meta? Open source alternatives to Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp fundraise on Kickstarter | TechCrunch

The developer behind Pixelfed, Loops, and Sup, open source alternatives to Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp, respectively, is now raising funds on

The developer behind Pixelfed, Loops, and Sup, open source alternatives to Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp, respectively, is now raising funds on Kickstarter to fuel the apps’ further development.

The trio is part of the growing open social web, also known as the fediverse, powered by the same ActivityPub protocol used by X alternative Mastodon. The latter saw increased signups and use after the company formerly known as Twitter sold to Elon Musk in October 2022 and during the X exodus that followed the U.S. presidential election.

In the months and years following that sale, open source and decentralized apps like Mastodon and Bluesky (which uses the newer AT Protocol), have continued to grow their user bases, as people sought alternatives to centralized social media apps controlled by billionaires like Musk and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg.

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Edit: Link to the kickstarter

138 comments

If all my friends, family, and coworkers could get off WhatsApp, I would be so happy.
- I'm trying to convince mine to get on Signal
  
  I just did convince my family and all close friends to move to signal.
  
  RCS could be also an option. Now mostly backed by google but it can be unplugged whenever we want

Stuff like this is a major, major component of dealing with nazis.
And even after they're dealt with, it's a better way of doing things, anyway. If it's a company, you're not on their social media platform, as much as you can possibly manage.
Which is a lot.

WhatsApp? Just use signal already!
- Centralized. Not good. Conversations is on fdroid and is decentralized, federated, open source and uses a mature and battle tested protocol (XMPP). If I wanted something new, I would prefer Matrix over Signal.
  
  People act like we need an alternative to Whatsapp but XMPP/Jabber exists and is much older.
  
  Why are there so many downvotes? Dude said the truth. Signal, like whatsapp, is a single point of failure. It can be enshittified just like whatsapp.
  
  What about Simplex over Matrix?
- It's not really a whatsapp alternative. More like a facebook messenger alternative. It replaces and encrypts dms from mastodon, pixelfed, lemmy, etc
  
  incorrect
- Signal? Just use matrix already!
  
  Unable to decrypt message
  
  Matrix? Just use telepathy already! /s
  I prefer Matrix over Signal because it required personal numbers.
  
  Simplex is a much closer alternative
  
  you go on matrix and some of the communities are like no matrex bad goto simplex we're there now
  
  Or XMPP for those who doesn't like matrix
- Not on FDroid. Not open source
  
  Not open source
  There are lots of good reasons to be upset with how Signal produces builds. And maybe Signal has no good reason why they keep opaque dependencies. But by every common definition of the term, Signal is open source. Being on FDroid is not the definition of open source.
  Please don't gatekeep. There are better ways to criticize Signal. This is not one of them.
  
  But it is open source. And there's a fork of Signal available on F-Droid called Molly.

I'm all for fediverse.
- It would help with a lot, yah

Let's hope this helps dansup get past the recent unpleasantness and he can delegate more. His output is amazing but burnout is a concern.

which uses the newer AT Protocol
This "newer" seems to be doing a lot of work.

Btw, you can also donate on Patreon, OpenCollective, and Liberapay.
- I’m guessing using Kickstarter has the benefit of adding hype as a new thing. I’ve always been curious about Open Collective and Liberapay. Have you tried it? Was it a smooth process?
  
  We use Open Collective to fund the instance and it has been pretty smooth sailing. Would definitely recommend to anyone running an instance.
  
  I donated with open collective before and it was a pretty smooth experience
  
  I went with Patreon. The CEO seems like a cool guy that just wants to support other creatives. Hope he’s actually as cool as he comes across.

What is Sup ?
- Not too much. Sup with you?
  
  😂😂 Nice one Anyways, what is this "Sup" that people keep talking about ? Is it another federated platform ?

Okay so
BlueSky = Twitter
Loops = TikTok
PixelFed = Instagram
Sup = What's App
Lemmy = Reddit
- ~~BlueSky~~ Mastodon = Twitter
  Loops = TikTok
  PixelFed = Instagram
  Sup = What's App
  Lemmy = Reddit
  
  What can replace Facebook?
  And how can anyone convince all their friends, family, and random people the follow, to jump platform?
  
  Sup is more like Messenger I guess? Signal will fit more.
  
  ~~Sup~~ Signal = WhatsApp
- Bluesky is just Twitter before being bought by Elon Musk. The real alternative is Mastodon. Bluesky can go fuck itself.
- BlueSky is another corporate microblog platform, which could end up going the way of Twitter. I'm not saying it will be bought by a fascist billionaire, but they will be beholden to advertisers at some point in the near future.
  I would highly recommend finding a Mastodon, Akkoma, or GoToSocial instance that aligns with your values and use that instead. If you are concerned about the network effects of not being on the 'biggest' platform where all the celebs are, there is a Bluesky->Mastodon bridge available.
- You forgot someone..
  
  No we didn't
- Bluesky can fuck right off.

Man, Dansup is tearing it up like an absolute beast. Donate to his fund.

Never heard of Sup for some reason, gotta check it out.
- Sup hasn't been released yet, so that's probably why you haven't heard of it. Dan says beta testing launches early 2025.
  
  Is it really just one guy writing three different platforms?
  
  I'm really excited for it. I might actually be able to get my family off Whatsapp because of fuckerberg, but I can't get them to move twice. I'm debating pushing signal now, or waiting it out for sup
- It started out as a major upgrade to Pixelfed's dm system and got spun off into it's own thing, same as Loops.
- Basically a tool to add encrypted messaging to the fediverse, using the Signal protocol.

Has anyone here tried Loops? Does it have an algorithm and if so what's it like? Any good?
- It has a "For You" tab but it's not doing anything yet. Or... I don't know what it's doing, to be honest.
  Dansup said that he's adding an algorithm soon.
  https://mastodon.social/@dansup/113849380427277273
- I got it on my android phone. Currently just a chronological stream off all posts. A lot is just resposts of tiktoks or other cribbed content. When it's not taken from tiktok, I feel like it's pretty mild random video of pets or landscapes.

Folks if you still have legacy social, agitation over there is doing rounds right now. Unfortunately, there's significantly fewer of us working to get people onboarded than thee last migration. If you still have those accounts, please consider plugging fedi.
- Yeah, I haven't logged into my fb account for a couple of years but this might be a good reason to go in and leave something in my 'bio' or whatever monstrosity it is these days, I can't even remember.

138 comments