Mastodon has seen a big spike in new users over the last week as people look for new social network options. One of the great things about Mastodon is the thriving ecosystem of third-party apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users. Head below as we round up some of our favorites.
A selfish plug before we begin. Be sure to follow me and 9to5Mac on Mastodon:
Ivory
Ivory comes from Tapbots, the team behind the beloved but now-defunct Tweetbot app. With years of experience building Tweetbot, these developers know how to build a powerful social media client. And that experience transfers directly to Ivory for Mastodon.
Anyone who used Tweetbot will feel right at home using Ivory. The app features a familiar design that’s based around a customizable navigation bar at the bottom. You can swipe on posts in your timeline to favorite, boost, reply, and more.
The app also includes a robust set of filtering options, which let you show posts based on certain criteria. For example, you can create a filter that shows you posts from people who follow you that also include links and media.
On iPad and Mac, Ivory includes multicolumn support allowing you to view multiple feeds at once. The apps also sync your timeline position across your devices using iCloud.
But Ivory also includes features unique to the Mastodon experience. For example, Mastodon gives third-party developers access to polls so you can vote on Mastodon polls. From the top of the Home feed, you can switch to your “Local” timeline, which shows all the posts from accounts on your Mastodon instance. For example, if you’re on the Mastodon.social instance, the “Local” timeline will show all posts from other users on that instance.
You can also switch to the “Federated” timeline. This timeline shows a broader feed of posts from your instance, people you follow, people who people you follow boost, and more. The specific implementation of the Federated timeline can vary a bit by app and instance, but expect it to include a wider range of posts and accounts than the Local or Home feeds.
One of my favorite aspects of Ivory is the Safari extension, which makes it easy to immediately open Mastodon links right in the app itself. This can help solve one of the pain points of Mastodon for many users, which is the ability to easily follow profiles from people who are on other Mastodon instances.
Ivory for Mastodon is available on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and Mac as a subscription app. Pricing starts at $1.99 per month for the iOS and iPadOS app, and a universal option that unlocks iPhone, iPad, and Mac is available for $24.99 per year.
Mona for Mastodon
Another excellent Mastodon app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac is Mona from indie developer Junyu Kuang. Mona includes all of the features you’d expect from a Mastodon client dedicated to iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This includes viewing different servers, following other servers, interacting with posts, creating polls, and much more.
One of the key aspects of Mona is its focus on customization. Pretty much every single aspect of Mona can be customized to your heart’s content. This ties in perfectly with Mastodon as a platform, which leans heavily on the user’s ability to tailor their timelines to their specific liking.
The focus on customization includes basic things like personalizing the layout of the tab bar along the bottom of the app. But you can also adjust the visual look of the entire Mona app. For instance, there’s an incredible amount of granularity for adjusting how posts appear in your Home timeline. You can adjust the layout and placement of profile pictures, link previews, boosts, quote posts, and more.
Mona also provides perhaps the best Tweetdeck-style interface of any Mastodon client out there, which is available on Mac, iPad, and even iPhone. On Mac and iPad, this includes the ability to add multiple columns for pretty much anything imaginable across any of your accounts.
But what Mona does on iPhone is even more clever. Natively, iOS doesn’t offer any sort of Split View-style multitasking, but Mona implements a custom solution that’s very impressive. You just tap a three-dot button, and the app splits itself in half so one window fills the top half and a second window fills the bottom.
Mona is available on the App Store as a free download. Mona Pro, which unlocks more advanced features, is available as a one-time purchase of $11.99 for iPhone. Mona Pro Max, which unlocks iPhone, iPad, and Mac support, costs $19.99 as a one-time purchase.
Ice Cubes for Mastodon
Ice Cubes comes from developer Thomas Ricouard and is another excellent take on a native Mastodon app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. As expected, the app features full support for native Mastodon features and feels right at home on Apple platforms thanks to its use of Swift UI.
- Browse your home, federated timeline, and local timeline.
- Push notifications.
- Favorite, boost, share, and even quote any toot.
- Great iPad support with a column dedicated to notifications
- You’ve read it right: This app offers a quote toot feature; Ice Cubes will also embed any other toot link so the content is easily readable.
- Organize your timeline with lists, add and remove users from lists, and create new lists!
- Filter your timeline by your lists, followed tags, and more.
- The timeline is also live, this app is connected to the powerful streaming API of Mastodon, so you won’t miss any content.
- You can even pin other instances’ local timelines; you can keep up with all your communities from the same account.
- Explore, search, and discover new content with a powerful explore tab.
- Dedicated tab for your direct message.
- Multiaccounts support; easily switch between your accounts.
- AI Tools Integration: You can get a little help from your AI friend when composing your toot; it can help you correct your text or even shorten it!
Ice Cubes is completely free and open source. You can download the app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac on the App Store. If you enjoy the app, I encourage you to head to the settings page and leave a tip for the developer.
Mammoth
Last, but not least, we have Mammoth, yet another powerful and full-featured Mastodon client for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This one was just recently updated with a more advanced and revamped experience on iPad and macOS.
- Customize the app exactly how you want: Change the color theme, the app icons, how posts are displayed, and the toolbar to meet your needs.
- Browse and interact with any Mastodon server’s timeline.
- Share posts as images that you can decorate as you wish, with custom colors and more.
- Quickly switch between timelines.
- Use Threader Mode to automate creating post threads.
- Undo posts (within a custom duration).
- Include GIFs, polls, drawings, and more in your posts.
- Multiple scrollable columns on iPad (or single column if preferred).
- Use Top Friends list to quickly access your inner circle.
Mammoth is available on the App Store as a free download with no in-app purchases.
And more
While other social media services no longer support third-party apps, and some never have (like Instagram), the third-party ecosystem around Mastodon is thriving. All of these apps offer robust support for Mastodon’s full set of features, with their own takes on design, customization, and more.
And there are even more that we didn’t mention above:
Whether you’re a new Mastodon user or someone who has been on the platform for years, I highly encourage you to take all of these third-party clients for a spin. Each of them is unique in its own way, and I’m positive you’ll be able to find one that fits your preferences.
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