Elon Musk hasn�t been running Twitter for long but he�s already
revealed some changes that have users hunting for a new social
network to call home.

Between firing thousands of employees in a single blunt memo and
offering the verification tick to anyone willing to pay $8 a
month for Twitter Blue, Musk�s decisions so far haven�t exactly
proven popular with the general Twitter population, with many
users already announcing they�re leaving the app for good.

So, where are they going?

One social network that has recently seen a huge spike in users
in recent weeks is Mastodon.

In fact, as of publishing this guide, the app�s most popular
server, �mastodon.social�, has locked its registration with
819,000 users � and that�s just a fraction of the total 4.5
million accounts on the app spread across a wide range of
servers.

But, what is Mastodon? Keep reading to discover everything you
need to know about the decentralised social media app, including
what it is, how it differs from Twitter and who is funding it.

What is Mastodon?

Mastodon is an open-source software created by German software
developer Eugen Rochko back in 2016.

The app is decentralised, allowing anyone to host their own
social networking server or choose to join an existing one with
a Mastodon account.

Despite accounts being hosted on different servers, users are
able to interact with posts and follow users across any Mastodon
server from one account, making the experience similar to more
conventional social media apps, like Twitter or Instagram.

However, unlike Twitter, Instagram or TikTok, posts are listed
in chronological order, meaning you don�t need to worry about
gaming an algorithm to make sure your posts are seen.

Mastodon supports a number of post types, including images,
videos, audio and �toots� (which are essentially Mastodon�s
answer to tweets). The app also supports polls, custom emojis,
accessibility descriptions and content warnings, to name a few
features.

Like Twitter, Mastodon fits into the category of a microblogging
app, allowing you to share short, frequent posts with your
followers and the wider community. However, this is where the
similarities would fizzle out.

�The entire network is like an unlimited number of different
Twitter websites, operated completely independently, users of
which can follow each other and interact regardless of which
Twitter website exactly they are on�, explains Mastodon on its
Patreon page.

�This has obvious benefits as there is no single company that
has a monopoly�.

How is Mastodon different from Twitter?

The main difference between Mastodon and Twitter is that
Mastodon is a decentralised platform, meaning there�s no one
company running the show.

Unlike Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, which are centralised
platforms, every Mastodon server is considered its own
independent entity with its own rules that are moderated and
enforced locally instead of top-down.

This means that servers can uphold their own standards and
there�s no risk of one individual or corporation taking over the
entire app in one sweep and enforcing massive sitewide changes.

Mastodon�s software is also open-source, which means that users
can use, copy and change Mastodon as they see fit in order to
build their own communities.

If you�re coming from Twitter, you�ll also notice that the
usernames are a little different to what you�re used to. Because
Mastodon user accounts exist within servers, the names of those
servers are tagged onto the end of usernames kind of like an
email address.

This means that, where your username might be @trustedreviews on
Twitter, it�ll probably look more like
@trustedreviews@mastodon.social over on Mastodon.

How does Mastodon make money?

Another key difference between Mastodon and Twitter is that
Mastodon doesn�t display ads or push sponsored profiles and
posts at you. There�s also no Twitter Blue equivalent to give
paying users special privileges when it comes to verification or
post visibility.

You might worry that this means all users will need to pay a
small subscription fee to use Mastodon, but thankfully that
isn�t the case.

Rather, the app is funded by �sponsors� who contribute to the
app�s running via Patreon or Mastodon�s own site.

These individuals and companies receive access to Mastodon�s
development Discord for their cash, along with their name and
logo in the sponsors list if they�re willing to pay a little
more.

However, the perks seem to end there, so you shouldn�t need to
worry about an algorithm pushing anyone�s toots to the top of
your feed.

https://www.trustedreviews.com/explainer/what-is-mastodon-4280059