6mo ago

Open source alternatives to Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp raise funds on Kickstarter | TechCrunch

Ditching Meta? Open source alternatives to Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp fundraise on Kickstarter | TechCrunch

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

Press coverage of the Fediverse @lemmy.world

Fitik @fedia.io

6mo ago

TechCrunch: Open source alternatives to Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp raise funds on Kickstarter

techcrunch.com /2025/01/24/open-source-alternatives-to-instagram-tiktok-and-whatsapp-raise-funds-on-kickstarter/

83 comments

WhatsApp? Just use signal already!
- 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.
  
  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.
  
  What about Simplex over Matrix?
- It's not really a whatsapp alternative. More like a facebook messenger alternative. It replaces and encrypts dms from mastodon, pixelfed, lemmy, etc
  
  incorrect
- Not on FDroid. Not open source
  
  But it is open source. And there's a fork of Signal available on F-Droid called Molly.
  
  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.
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.
I'm all for fediverse.
- It would help with a lot, yah
which uses the newer AT Protocol
This "newer" seems to be doing a lot of work.
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?
  
  I donated with open collective before and it was a pretty smooth experience
  
  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.
  
  We use Open Collective to fund the instance and it has been pretty smooth sailing. Would definitely recommend to anyone running an instance.
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?
  
  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
- 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.
  https://mastodon.social/@dansup/113849380427277273
- 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.
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.
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
  
  RCS could be also an option. Now mostly backed by google but it can be unplugged whenever we want

83 comments