Amid layoffs, review changes, notable executive departures, a volatile ad business, and the undeniable dumpster fire that Twitter is right now, many users are rightly looking to alternative platforms. If you’re looking to do the same, you’re probably wondering: Can anything really replace Twitter?
While Twitter has numerous advantages, some of its best aspects can be found elsewhere. I did a little research and found several compelling alternatives to the social network. Here were some of the best.
This open-source, decentralized social networking platform debuted in 2016 and has been picking up steam since Elon Musk officially acquired Twitter in October. The term “social network” has a completely different meaning. Instead of being a centralized platform (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.), it allows users to create, host and moderate their own communities or “instances”. This leaves a lot of the rules and moderation to the instance host – almost as if you were running your own social network.
Mastodon offers a layout similar to Twitter’s in 2014. It’s a familiar feel that helps keep the experience from being too overwhelming coming from the Vogel app. That being said, it can be a lot to digest at first, but if you follow some like-minded people you might find it a great Twitter alternative.
Although Cohost is still in beta, you don’t need an invitation to join. However, if you don’t have one, you’ll have to wait “a day or two” before you can start posting. The site claims to do this to fight spam. In the meantime, you can still look around. I was approved in about an hour.
Cohost claims to be completely ad-free and offers a subscription for advanced features (bigger uploads, customization options). In addition, the social network claims that it will “never sell your data, sell ads, or sell the company to anyone who could change these policies to make a quick buck.”
Similar to Facebook and Twitter, it offers a vertical feed or similar actions, although posts are not algorithmically controlled, but are always listed in the order they were posted. I also appreciate the ability to have more than one editor for a profile. Overall it feels internet and community driven very early on.
Reddit needs no introduction, but it wouldn’t be right to take it off this list. The popular social news site is a place I expect to get a lot of attention as the mass exodus from Twitter grows and continues.
At its core, Reddit is a massive collection of forums, each focused on topics known as subreddits. Subreddits can sometimes be a jack-of-all-trades of comments, memes, and rants. Users can upvote or downvote comments and posts, which allows them to gain or lose karma indicative of your post.
WikiTribue Social or WT.Social claims to be a non-toxic social media platform and a “place where advertisers don’t call the shots. Where your data isn’t packaged and sold.” It was founded in 2019 by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales as an alternative to traditional websites. Like Wikipedia, WT.Social runs entirely on a donation basis and not on advertising.
It is structured so that users can join, create, and contribute to “subwikis” in a style similar to Reddit. If you use WT.Social, you’ll quickly realize that the site is designed to fight misinformation and have meaningful conversations. Posts require evidence-based news with links and clear sources. Other users and moderators can also edit and report misleading links.
While unlikely to grow as big as Twitter or Reddit, WT.Social is an appealing alternative that even Wales himself has admitted: “is a radical, crazy experiment.”
From the start, CounterSocial boasts on its front page that if you live in “origin points” for bots like Russia, Iran, China, and others, it does not allow trolls, fake news, ads, and even full access. Oddly enough, it also features a VR room (which it calls Counter Realms).
If you’ve ever used Tweetdeck, you’ll be all too familiar with CounterSocial’s columns interface. Users can delete, rearrange, or create additional columns from hashtags, user lists, and topics. Free version users can follow, like, reshare, and comment on posts and replies. Pro accounts are also available (for $5/month) with advanced features such as B. changing your profile status and setting posts to expire and “explode”.
Although some topics are underserved and complete dead zones, I think CounterSocial offers a good experience and a Twitter alternative should be high on your list.
Tumblr has been around almost as long as Twitter and has seen its fair share of bad business decisions. The Tumblr that exists today—unlike Twitter’s 280-character limit—still sticks to its long-form blog-style content, with the ability to share media elements like photos, videos, and GIFs. Followers can discuss blog posts in the attached notes (a comment section). Users can also share other entries on their own site (similar to a retweet) or even with other services.
Unlike previous sites on this list, Tumblr allows advertising on its platform. Users can bypass it and collect additional features by subscribing for $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year.
Other
Of course, these are just a few of the seemingly endless amounts of social media platforms out there today. This list consists of sites that I believe are the best Twitter alternatives and have the ability to engulf numerous users. But ultimately, different types of social networks could also be good alternatives.
LinkedIn is best known as a networking site for business people. Still, similar to Twitter, it offers many social-friendly features like a news feed and the ability for users to follow each other and share post updates, photos, videos, polls, etc.
What started as a way for gamers to communicate while playing video games has grown into a prominent social media site with over 150 million active monthly users. Unlike the networks listed above, Discord does not have a public feed or chat. Instead, it’s structured into independent chat rooms where users can message and communicate via voice or video calls – most comparable to Slack.
Have you recently switched to any of these devices? Do you plan to leave Twitter or are you in until the end? Let us know in the comments.
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