The future of Twitter remains unclear, with the purchase process by Elon Musk still stalled. The drift of one of the oldest social networks, together with the high degree of polarization that permeates it, lead many users to consider what are the best alternatives to Twitter in 2022 . After all, everything on the Internet is perishable, even if it seems very settled, and if not, ask MSN Messenger or Tuenti.
Users are usually on more than one social network at the same time, and many of those who are not on Twitter have migrated to Instagram, TikTok… or have even taken refuge again in Facebook , even more veteran and even with a worse image, if it is. that this is possible. Although the nature of each one is very different, Twitter users can adapt to all of them, since deep down they all allow the option of making publications, some necessarily with images and/or videos.
One of the main problems faced by users who are hesitating about whether or not to leave Twitter for good is whether they will be able to move their entire audience to another social network. The reality is that very few influencers can afford to leave a platform knowing that all their followers will go wherever they land, so the variable is knowing if the algorithm allows organic growth. With the landing of advertising on all social networks, growing organically is only guaranteed today by two platforms: TikTok and –attention- LinkedIn .
The social network that the vast majority use only to look for work when they need it is currently the great unknown, and one of the ones that generates the highest revenues. Anyone who wants to build a good audience can do so with quality posts on a constant basis on LinkedIn , which has unexpectedly become an interesting alternative to Twitter.
ALTERNATIVES TO TWITTER WITHOUT CENSORSHIP
The detractors of the future? Elon Musk’s social network also highlights that a lot of censorship is currently being exercised, producing phenomena such as shadowbanning (limitation of the exposure of those accounts that tweet controversial topics). These users are looking for alternatives to Twitter without censorship, although in reality this platform is one of the platforms that has allowed the most freedom, especially in relation to adult content.
However, there are other spaces in which users can find that theoretically desired greater freedom. Mastodon is one of the most named , but we will talk about it in the next section. Reddit is another place where many disenchanted Twitter users have found refuge thanks to its large number of available groups and subgroups.
Tumblr, a platform many thought was dead , remains a stronghold for free speech with a large Gen Z user base after booming over the past decade. Another alternative, this paid one, is OnlyFans , although in practice it has ended up becoming a place to find erotic content above any other topic.
The four examples cited are based on the perception of users, since absolutely all social networks have their own terms of use and red lines , so this ideal of “no censorship” is nothing more than a utopia. There will always be (and should be) some limits on this type of platform. The total absence of regulations ends up leading to crimes, as has been seen in numerous places on the dark web that have ended up being intervened and closed by the authorities.
APPS THAT LOOK LIKE TWITTER
When looking for a new social network to replace Twitter , many users are looking for apps that look like Twitter , and developers of other applications keep it in mind when designing interfaces. The resemblance is so powerful in some cases that it gives the impression that the only thing they have sought is to make a mere copy of the little blue bird’s social network and hope that users arrive by pure logic to this new place.
OnlyFans’ design is clearly based on Twitter , although its operation is much more focused on paid subscriptions, which ends up separating the paths of both (beyond Twitter Blue, whose acceptance rate is still residual). However, OnlyFans users will not find too much difficulty in navigating a design that they will surely recognize immediately.
Another much less well-known alternative, but traced to Twitter, is Mind s. This social network prides itself on promoting Internet freedom, the fashionable claim for Twitter dropouts . Beyond its design, its main novelty is that it is much easier to find disinformation and political propaganda than on Twitter, which says a lot about the type of content that can be found on Minds.
Finally, among the most similar alternatives to Twitter that we can find is Mastodon.social . The differences between one and the other are limited to the decentralized nature of the latter and the name change of the most common functions. The retweet becomes a reblog, the retweet becomes a retoot, and so on. The main problem is that in none of these alternatives to Twitter can you find an audience as large as in the network that Jack Dorsey founded at the time, which is still fully valid.
WHAT IS MASTODON?
If the last example has interested you and you want to know more in detail what Mastodon is, it is an open source social network that we already talked about in this article . When registering in the application we will have to choose a server, within a wide list. Depending on our interests or our geographical location, we can choose one server or another before starting to share our content and explore to see who we can follow on the platform.
It should be noted that each server has its own internal rules , so the user will not be able to behave as they please. The fact of being open source does allow developers to know how it works internally, so doubts about the behavior of the algorithm are not as great as on Twitter, Facebook or TikTok, this being an advantage for the user.