The developer behind Pixelfed, Loops, and Sup, open source alternatives to Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp, respectively, is now raising funds on Kickstarter to fuel the apps’ further development.
The trio is part of the growing open social web, also known as the fediverse, powered by the same ActivityPub protocol used by X alternative Mastodon. The latter saw increased signups and use after the company formerly known as Twitter sold to Elon Musk in October 2022 and during the X exodus that followed the U.S. presidential election.
In the months and years following that sale, open source and decentralized apps like Mastodon and Bluesky (which uses the newer AT Protocol), have continued to grow their user bases, as people sought alternatives to centralized social media apps controlled by billionaires like Musk and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg.
Edit: Link to the kickstarter
What is Sup ?
Not too much. Sup with you?
😂😂 Nice one Anyways, what is this “Sup” that people keep talking about ? Is it another federated platform ?
Thanks for being a good sport. In these trying times we have to cherish every genuine updog moment we find ourselves in.
It’s federated encrypted messaging :)
Let’s hope this helps dansup get past the recent unpleasantness and he can delegate more. His output is amazing but burnout is a concern.
Stuff like this is a major, major component of dealing with nazis.
And even after they’re dealt with, it’s a better way of doing things, anyway. If it’s a company, you’re not on their social media platform, as much as you can possibly manage.
Which is a lot.
WhatsApp? Just use signal already!
It’s not really a whatsapp alternative. More like a facebook messenger alternative. It replaces and encrypts dms from mastodon, pixelfed, lemmy, etc
incorrect
Care to elaborate? Genuinely i interested as to why that is
Signal is just like WhatsApp. Same features. So yeah, that’s incorrect.
no
ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ Allllrighty then
Centralized. Not good. Conversations is on fdroid and is decentralized, federated, open source and uses a mature and battle tested protocol (XMPP). If I wanted something new, I would prefer Matrix over Signal.
People act like we need an alternative to Whatsapp but XMPP/Jabber exists and is much older.
what happened to pidgin
Pidgin is a client, not a specific protocol.
I know, I just remember I used to use it with jabber xmpp but I think after everyone got gtalk and then everyone got cellphones everyone moved away from those types of clients
Fun fact, Google Talk and Facebook used to be compatible with XMPP.
Nobody but a handful of nerds uses it though. You won’t get your grandparents and less tech literate friends to leave whatsapp in droves, simple as that.
And they’re not going to leave WhatsApp for Sup? either. All I’m saying is we’ve had an alternative for decades, even before WA was created, we don’t need another one, we need the one we already have to have more success.
What about Simplex over Matrix?
Simplex is more like Briar or Cwtch
Sure, it looks great. But it doesn’t have the popularity of Matrix, which is already less popular than XMPP which has enjoyed decent adoption since it’s inception.
What are some good examples of apks to use in regards to this use-case?
Signal? Just use matrix already!
Unable to decrypt message
Matrix? Just use telepathy already! /s
I prefer Matrix over Signal because it required personal numbers.
Simplex is a much closer alternative
I tried using it with a friend, and it completely nuked my phone’s battery, while my friend’s phone silently killed it (likely for using too much battery). I understand that truly privacy-respecting messengers will always use slightly more power than apps that use the google notification thing, but simplex is just a complete power hog beyond any reasonable limit. Hopefully they fix it at some point, it seems like a pretty solid messenger otherwise, and their approach to privacy and anonymity is unparalleled, at least in theory.
you go on matrix and some of the communities are like no matrex bad goto simplex we’re there now
Not on FDroid. Not open source
Not open source
There are lots of good reasons to be upset with how Signal produces builds. And maybe Signal has no good reason why they keep opaque dependencies. But by every common definition of the term, Signal is open source. Being on FDroid is not the definition of open source.
Please don’t gatekeep. There are better ways to criticize Signal. This is not one of them.
If your releases include closed source blobs, then your software is closed source.
Following that logic:
Many popular Linux distros contain closed source blobs. Ergo Linux is closed source.
Linux is an open source kernel. Many operating systems that use linux ars closed source, yes. This is the position of the FSF.
And its why most Linux distros have an option to include closed source or not.
Signal, however, has no option. Its just closed source software.
But it is open source. And there’s a fork of Signal available on F-Droid called Molly.
It is not open source. That’s why its not allowed on fdroid. It has parts that are open source, like most apps. But the app itself is closed source and a risk
The only part that isn’t open source is their spam filter.
Nope. Google deps
If all my friends, family, and coworkers could get off WhatsApp, I would be so happy.
I’m trying to convince mine to get on Signal
I just did convince my family and all close friends to move to signal.
RCS could be also an option. Now mostly backed by google but it can be unplugged whenever we want
I’m not going to use a proprietary protocol to chat through Google’s (Jibe) servers running proprietary software. Even if the messages are e2ee, Google can still collect metadata. Google never provides anything for free and collection of data is kinda their thing.
Also, Google will kill RCS sooner or later.
yeahhh nah
afaik not really, only cell phone companies can apply to join the rcs federation and all of them just outsourced it to google and apple so it under control of just 2 companies.
so no, rcs is not an open standard.
The number of cell phone companies is so high nowadays that it could be compared to the number of fediverse instances. They would just need a prepackaged docker to set it all up and they would just do it. No need for eternal history of messages and media, they could manage it a la WhatsApp.
I worked for years in one of the biggest in telecom companies in Europe. They supported RCS for about 2 years, before they stopped. I tried to restart the project, but there was no interest. It is viewed as a waste of money since customers already use Google Messages, iMessage, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and WhatsApp.
So Snapchat is lossinh money with its service? I don’t think so
I think you may have misunderstood what I wrote.
Snapchat makes money through showing you ads. RCS is something very different. It is not social media. RCS has no ads in the same way that SMS has no ads.
Telecom providers have to spend money to support RCS. Telecom providers don’t want to spend money on RCS if it’s not going to earn them money. They believe RCS is not going to earn them money because the customers aren’t interested. The customers aren’t interested because they can already chat with each other through social media and chat apps.
still more work then just letting google handle it for them, so wont happen
I’m all for fediverse.
Btw, you can also donate on Patreon, OpenCollective, and Liberapay.
I’m guessing using Kickstarter has the benefit of adding hype as a new thing. I’ve always been curious about Open Collective and Liberapay. Have you tried it? Was it a smooth process?
We use Open Collective to fund the instance and it has been pretty smooth sailing. Would definitely recommend to anyone running an instance.
I went with Patreon. The CEO seems like a cool guy that just wants to support other creatives. Hope he’s actually as cool as he comes across.
Heard they take a bigger cut tho, do you know how much was it when you donated?
No idea, but good to know. I’ll consider switching my next contribution to a different service. Thanks!
which uses the newer AT Protocol
This “newer” seems to be doing a lot of work.
Okay so
BlueSky = Twitter
Loops = TikTok
PixelFed = Instagram
Sup = What’s App
Lemmy = RedditBluesky is just Twitter before being bought by Elon Musk. The real alternative is Mastodon. Bluesky can go fuck itself.
BlueSky is another corporate microblog platform, which could end up going the way of Twitter. I’m not saying it will be bought by a fascist billionaire, but they will be beholden to advertisers at some point in the near future.
I would highly recommend finding a Mastodon, Akkoma, or GoToSocial instance that aligns with your values and use that instead. If you are concerned about the network effects of not being on the ‘biggest’ platform where all the celebs are, there is a Bluesky->Mastodon bridge available.
You forgot someone…
No we didn’t
Man, Dansup is tearing it up like an absolute beast. Donate to his fund.
Never heard of Sup for some reason, gotta check it out.
Sup hasn’t been released yet, so that’s probably why you haven’t heard of it. Dan says beta testing launches early 2025.
Is it really just one guy writing three different platforms?
Loops and sup started as upgrades to pixelfed and then got spun off.
- PixelFed
- SUP
- Loops
- fedidb
- pubkit
Five.
There’s hundreds of other contributers, but he started them all and did the bulk of the work. The plan is to have more regular developers if they get enough donations.
Ah ok that makes sense. In my head this guy was maintaining four codebases which did seem impossible
It’s not impossible if you are a good developer
I’m really excited for it. I might actually be able to get my family off Whatsapp because of fuckerberg, but I can’t get them to move twice. I’m debating pushing signal now, or waiting it out for sup
Lol fuckerberg, its too funny
(Sorry I don’t have anything to contribute to this discussion)
I don’t know how sup will be, but signal is a mature product, run by a nonprofit, with functional apps etc. I moved my group of friends and my family years ago and it has all the essential features. People want stuff that just works, especially for talking and communicating daily. I doubt sup will be the same level of maturity while also offering the same security and privacy features as signal does, at least for years to come.
The challenge with messengers like Matrix and WhatsApp (and I assume sup, correct me if I’m wrong) is that they don’t encrypt the metadata like Signal’s sealed sender. Knowing exactly who you talk to and how frequently is a very juicy target for the government … And the government right now is orange Hitler and his ragtag team of muppets, so I trust that they’ll abuse whatever power and knowledge they have to the utmost.
It started out as a major upgrade to Pixelfed’s dm system and got spun off into it’s own thing, same as Loops.
Basically a tool to add encrypted messaging to the fediverse, using the Signal protocol.
Has anyone here tried Loops? Does it have an algorithm and if so what’s it like? Any good?
It has a “For You” tab but it’s not doing anything yet. Or… I don’t know what it’s doing, to be honest.
Dansup said that he’s adding an algorithm soon.
I got it on my android phone. Currently just a chronological stream off all posts. A lot is just resposts of tiktoks or other cribbed content. When it’s not taken from tiktok, I feel like it’s pretty mild random video of pets or landscapes.
Folks if you still have legacy social, agitation over there is doing rounds right now. Unfortunately, there’s significantly fewer of us working to get people onboarded than thee last migration. If you still have those accounts, please consider plugging fedi.
Yeah, I haven’t logged into my fb account for a couple of years but this might be a good reason to go in and leave something in my ‘bio’ or whatever monstrosity it is these days, I can’t even remember.
