Tired of Twitter? Here are 5 alternatives you can try

Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter hasn’t (yet) crashed the social network like some predicted it would. The billionaire tech mogul purchased Twitter in a deal valued at $44 billion with a plan to eliminate his issues with his favorite social network. Among them are strict moderation practices — which he suggests limit free speech — bots, and many others.

Despite this, Twitter’s future seems uncertain. Musk fired Twitter’s CEO, CFO, and general counsel on his first day at the company. Now he’s planning to Twitter Blue — monetizing the verification symbol. Changes are coming fast, and many of you are might be worried about what Twitter will become. We’ve put together a list of the best Twitter alternatives in case you want to take all your social networking elsewhere.

The best Twitter alternatives

While Twitter is a bit hard to replace, some alternatives can make a good home for all your posts and social activity. We’ll skip Facebook and Instagram for now. They might make reasonable Twitter alternatives depending on your needs, but you probably know what you need to about them already.

• Mastodon
• Reddit
• Cohost
• CounterSocial
• Bluesky Social

Mastodon: The most similar to Twitter, but open source

Something’s not right if you have to be worrying about who owns your favorite social network. This is what sets Mastodon apart — no one owns it. You can think of Mastodon as a decentralized Twitter alternative. People control it via servers, which you can switch between at will. It also runs no ads, and you get to pick what you see in your feed, as opposed to a corporation and algorithm.

Mastodon’s posts are “toots.” The word seems oddly familiar and very similar to Twitter’s “tweets.” The UI is actually very much like Twitter’s, too. It even has hashtags. And if you’re into news, there’s a special section for those types of posts. It’s likely the best Twitter alternative if you want a similar experience without all the bureaucratic downsides. Many public figures publicly migrated there after Musk took charge at Twitter HQ.

Reddit: The most popular forum

If you’ve ever been around the internet, you probably know of Reddit. This is the most popular forum-style website in existence, and the best part is that it’s community-driven. The website divides topics into subreddits. Each has its set of rules, and votes prioritize which content shows up first. You can either upvote or downvote a post, and the website will prioritize all posts by popularity.

While this news and post aggregator isn’t quite like Twitter, it’s a great network you can help shape. You can easily decide what you want to read about, and there is pretty much a subreddit about any given subject. Additionally, voting will help weed out the posts that most of the community doesn’t like, so the content is naturally curated.

Cohost: A more private experience

Cohost is another social network that’s actually very similar to Twitter but with a more controlled philosophy in mind. Like Mastodon, it has no ads, and the company doesn’t sell your data. Additionally, no algorithm will try to decipher what you should see or not. As such, all posts show up in chronological order.

The only downside about Cohost is that it’s still relatively new, so there’s a bit of a barrier to entry. Anyone can sign up, but only those with an invitation code will be accepted immediately. Users without an invitation will have to wait a few days before they can start commenting. This is an excellent way to prevent spam and bots from doing as they wish.

CounterSocial: The future of social networking?

CounterSocial is very special for those who like to live on the verge of the latest tech and social media services. It offers a constant stream of content curated by your watchlist. It’s all end-to-end encrypted, and privacy is of the utmost priority.

All technicalities aside, though, CounterSocial is actually quite an impressive social network. It is available on PC, mobile, and VR. It even has a VR world you can navigate with your goggles. CounterSocial is also very clear about its strict policies, claiming it suffers from “No Trolls. No Abuse. No Ads. No Fake News. No Foreign Influence Ops.” Perfect for all of those worried about Twitter becoming a free-for-all.

Bluesky Social: Jack Dorsey’s next project

Admittedly, Bluesky Social hasn’t fully launched yet. But it isn’t far away, and it is likely to be a compelling Twitter alternative for obvious reasons. It’s headed up by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and was initially funded by the bird app when he was still running the show back in 2019. Given those facts, it would be surprising if Dorsey wasn’t aiming to offer an improved alternative to his previous project.

The goal of Bluesky is to create a protocol that is not controlled by a single company or organization, helping to mitigate issues related to censorship, data privacy, and monopolies in the social media industry. The project’s focus is on creating a set of protocols, standards, and open-source software that will allow developers to build decentralized social media platforms that can interact with each other seamlessly.

The waiting list to try the beta version of the new social media network opened in October, and you can still join. We’ll certainly have one eye on how the project develops.

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