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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[–] n2burns@lemmy.ca 23 points 1 week ago (2 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.

[–] NotSteve_@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Is it really just one guy writing three different platforms?

[–] underscores@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

[–] NotSteve_@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ah ok that makes sense. In my head this guy was maintaining four codebases which did seem impossible

[–] Harbinger01173430@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

It's not impossible if you are a good developer

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 9 points 1 week ago

PixelFed
SUP
Loops
fedidb
pubkit

Five.

[–] spaduf@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 week ago

Loops and sup started as upgrades to pixelfed and then got spun off.

[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 7 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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

[–] something_random_tho@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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.

[–] sudneo@lemm.ee 3 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago

Lol fuckerberg, its too funny

(Sorry I don't have anything to contribute to this discussion)