WhistleOut fast facts
- Mastodon, a free, open-source platform, has gained thousands of users since Twitter was officially acquired by billionaire Elon Musk nearly two weeks ago.
- The official mobile app has been downloaded over half a million times since October 27.
- The social network is built on community-run "instances"—or servers—that work together to create a larger social network.
- Unlike Twitter, Mastodon is run by its founder full-time with a group of volunteers.
The social networking site Mastodon recently saw a spike in sign-ups after Twitter was officially acquired by Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. From October 27 to November 3, 2022, over 230,000 people signed up for Mastodon, and the platform reached over 655,000 active users, according to (ironically) a tweet by the platform.
People are using Mastodon on their phones, too. On Friday, October 28, the day after Musk completed his Twitter acquisition, Sensor Tower reported that Mastodon reached #38 in the Social Networking category in the U.S. App Store.
Over the weekend, Mastodon saw the most installs per day, with 34,000 downloads on October 29. By October 30, the app had been downloaded 489,000 times on iOS and Android, which accounted for nearly 20% of lifetime downloads. The app hit #21 in the App Store on Monday, October 31.
On November 8, a week later and nearly two weeks after the spike in downloads, Mastodon still sat at #27 in the Apple App Store and #30 in the Google Play store for general downloads.
Users are joining Mastodon in record numbers and downloading the app to make it part of their daily lives. But what is Mastodon, and can it really compete with Twitter?
What is Mastodon?
Mastodon is a free, web-based, decentralized, open-source software. Because it's open, third-party apps can use its features fully—and Mastodon encourages this. In fact, in addition to the official Mastodon app in the App Store and Google Play, there are 20 third-party applications that Mastodon recognizes. (That means the app can have more users than downloads in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.)
The platform was designed by Eugen Rochko, who told John Hsieh he created Mastodon because “I was disappointed with Twitter, and have a love for free software.” The team itself is led by Rochko, the sole employee of the crowdfunded non-profit platform.
Today, there are over 4.5 million accounts, with 1.3 active users and 4,000 servers to join.
When signing up, each user joins a Mastodon “instance”—AKA a server—that works in concert with all other instances/servers to create a larger social network. (Think of how states form a larger union, for example.) Users join the server that matches the rules and terms they want to abide by, but each user is still part of the larger collective at Mastodon and can post for everyone to see.
While there is a complicated sign-up process, Mastodon makes it easy to find your people. You’re able to choose which languages you speak, how many users you want in your instance, and if you’d prefer any content moderation guidelines in that instance.
When you’re ready to be verified, the process is a little different—verification on Mastodon is about “actually verifying who you are,” according to the platform, and centers around posted links authenticating users as real people. In addition to fact-based verification, Mastodon offers other features such as an edit button, a 500-character limit, content warnings, a post filter system, and an extended notification bar.
Mastodon is a different kind of social network—one that relies on its community to create a fun and safe environment.
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Alex Kerai
Consumer Trends Reporter
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