Ivory
Some of you may have heard that a new Mastodon client, Ivory, is in development for iOS (and Mac!). This is true! Tapbots is going all in on Mastodon and we hope this place continues to grow and thrive. Tweetbot will continue to be developed alongside Ivory as a lot of code is shared. A new Mac version of Tweetbot and Ivory are also currently in development and we are working hard on getting those towards a public beta state.
We invested so much into Tweetbot over the past 11 years and to think everything was potentially going to end was the scariest thought. But as the days went on, I started to think more rationally and knew it would be okay. As much as Twitter has brought us success, it has also been extremely frustrating for the past 6-7 years trying to build something great with a nerfed API.
[…]
Building an app for an open and decentralized social platform felt so refreshing. Inspirational! I haven’t been so excited designing something in a long time. With Tweetbot, we were always fighting with the API limitations while knowing in the back of our minds that someday the API could be taken away. I didn’t realize it then, but that killed a lot of our excitement and enthusiasm. With @ivory, we are just ecstatic every single day. It’s just been a pure joy to make software again.
Currently, I’m following Mastodon accounts using NetNewsWire, since the Web interface doesn’t remember where you are in the timeline.
I like what Tapbots did with Netbot for App.net back in the day, though I never found it satisfying to use two different services at once. It’s annoying to have separate timelines in two different apps, with some posts duplicated.
Twitter has been changing its policies so rapidly, and with scant or subsequently deleted explanations, so it doesn’t seem worth following the drama over there too closely.
Previously:
- Migrating From Twitter to Mastodon
- Twitter Shutting Down APIs
- App.net Is Shutting Down
- Back Up Netbot
Update (2023-01-12): Dan Moren:
Tapbots has gone ahead and posted a road map for the app, laying out what exactly is in the works for the near future. Currently on the list, which Tapbots plans to update as it goes, are the ability to create content warnings on posts, enhanced profile features, and a filterable navigation bar, among others.
6 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
Mastoot is the best app I’ve found for keeping my place in the Mastodon timeline. It’s the only app I’m aware of that syncs your timeline position, which lets me use the app on my iPad and iPhone without losing my place.
I must say a forbidden raw material subject of huge illegal trade and contributing to elephants risk of extinction is not a great brand name to choose.
I agree that the choice of name is stupendously tone deaf.
Other than that it's good to see the with return to its decentralised roots.
“a forbidden raw material subject of huge illegal trade and contributing to elephants risk of extinction is not a great name to choose.”
It’s also an effective dog whistle welcome for white nationalists. Doubt they were going for that, but still.
Terrible choice of name.
It’s worth mentioning the open-source Ice Cubes App for Mastodon. Making lots of progress! The ability to quickly browse the “Local Timeline” of other instances (like iosdev.space) is really useful.
