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.

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Edit: Link to the kickstarter

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[–] MITM0@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What is Sup ?

[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 7 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Not too much. Sup with you?

[–] MITM0@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

😂😂 Nice one Anyways, what is this "Sup" that people keep talking about ? Is it another federated platform ?

[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 3 points 22 hours ago

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 :)

[–] Emperor@feddit.uk 12 points 1 day ago

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.

[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 43 points 2 days ago

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.

[–] paequ2@lemmy.today 85 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If all my friends, family, and coworkers could get off WhatsApp, I would be so happy.

[–] Banana@sh.itjust.works 44 points 2 days ago (15 children)

I'm trying to convince mine to get on Signal

[–] RQG@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

I just did convince my family and all close friends to move to signal.

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[–] oozy7@lemmy.world 62 points 2 days ago (33 children)

WhatsApp? Just use signal already!

[–] spaduf@slrpnk.net 9 points 1 day ago (4 children)

It's not really a whatsapp alternative. More like a facebook messenger alternative. It replaces and encrypts dms from mastodon, pixelfed, lemmy, etc

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[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

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.

[–] Deway@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (3 children)

People act like we need an alternative to Whatsapp but XMPP/Jabber exists and is much older.

[–] nonfuinoncuro@lemm.ee 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

what happened to pidgin

[–] Deway@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Pidgin is a client, not a specific protocol.

[–] nonfuinoncuro@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

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[–] astro_ray@piefed.social 6 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Why are there so many downvotes? Dude said the truth. Signal, like whatsapp, is a single point of failure. It can be enshittified just like whatsapp.

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[–] littleomid@feddit.org 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

What about Simplex over Matrix?

[–] MITM0@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Simplex is more like Briar or Cwtch

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] Winterfrost@lemm.ee 40 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm all for fediverse.

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[–] moseschrute@lemmy.world 30 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Btw, you can also donate on Patreon, OpenCollective, and Liberapay.

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[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 31 points 2 days ago

which uses the newer AT Protocol

This "newer" seems to be doing a lot of work.

[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Okay so

BlueSky = Twitter
Loops = TikTok
PixelFed = Instagram
Sup = What's App
Lemmy = Reddit

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

Bluesky is just Twitter before being bought by Elon Musk. The real alternative is Mastodon. Bluesky can go fuck itself.

[–] shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol 64 points 2 days ago (23 children)

~~BlueSky~~ Mastodon = Twitter
Loops = TikTok
PixelFed = Instagram
Sup = What's App
Lemmy = Reddit

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[–] Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 20 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Man, Dansup is tearing it up like an absolute beast. Donate to his fund.

[–] hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Never heard of Sup for some reason, gotta check it out.

[–] n2burns@lemmy.ca 23 points 2 days ago (10 children)

Sup hasn't been released yet, so that's probably why you haven't heard of it. Dan says beta testing launches early 2025.

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