You can see it if you check https://fedidb.org/. Monthly active users have gone from just a hair under one million to somewhere around 1.4 million and still growing. How do we think this will go? How do we feel about this influx of new users? Has PixelFed done something different that Mastodon hasn't?

I feel like I didn't really recognize having different "platforms" like Mastodon, PixelFed, etc would give multiple opportunities for the fediverse to make a "first" impression with people.

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[–] MysticKetchup 169 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (19 children)

The official Pixelfed app just has a nicer looking UI
There's not really a competing app for people leaving Insta like there is Bluesky vs Mastodon
Pixelfed's content is mostly visual so it's easily digestible to casual users and you don't have to scroll past dry Fedi arguments
Better discover features so users don't have to do a bunch of legwork to find who to follow

Just my guesses though, but like any social media it really depends on if big creators will switch and if users stick with it over time

[–] br0da 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Is the iPhone app still missing darkmode?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What about Android? I don't see dark mode in options.

[–] br0da 5 points 1 month ago

Dang for some reason I thought Android had it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

yup… (at least in the stable channel)

what’s most infuriating is that it used to have it but at some point they redesigned the app and made it worse…?

you don’t have to imitate instagram that much, dansup

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think it was more that he wanted to open source the app but had built it while he was learning so it was pretty messy and he felt insecure about it. So he rebuilt the app from scratch and open-sourced it. It just isn't quite at feature parity to the old app yet. Pretty sure dark mode is coming in the next update though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

oooh, yea that’s a good point

and, I mean, the app was in beta, sudden changes are to be expected

but still, I feel like the app was so much better before… its kinda frustrating

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Agreed. It immediately went from being maybe the best app in the Fediverse to the 3rd best for its own service. I stopped using Pixelfed altogether until Pixelix got good enough to be a replacement.

I honestly don't understand how getting the new app to feature parity with the old wasn't maximum priority. It at least seems like it's going to get there pretty soon.

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