Mastodon, Tumblr, Hive… We tested eight Twitter alternatives for you
1 Mastodon: Twitter just got more complicated
If you want simple, avoid it Mastodon. The social network certainly took the concept of Twitter – the publication of short messages (500 characters max, against 240 for the blue bird), with hashtags and “repost” and “favorite” functions -, but its infrastructure: it is a decentralized site. We do not register on a server, but on a theme server owned by another Internet user. That complicates the experience: you have to choose a server from 3,600 (each with its own rules and its own technical performance), juggle between three “news feeds”, re-register to change servers… social network, it is difficult to find your contacts and reach a large audience when you publish a message.
This is for you if:
– You are computer literate
– You want to talk about specific topics in communities
It’s not for you if:
– You are looking for an easy to use social network
– You enjoy social media with clear moderation rules
2 Tumblr: Twitter of artists
The search for the password of this old account has passed tumblr created in 2014 during your Taylor Swift era, and whose existence you completely forgot, you will find a platform between your good old Skyblog and Twitter. The principle is quite simple: you can subscribe to topics, in the form of hashtags. But be careful, here, there are no instant news, rather posts in a creative form, often based on inspirational phrases and some memes. Tumblr describes itself as a micro-blogging platform, where users can post text, photos, videos, GIFs. The end result of your blog, which is more modern than the one you created on Skyblog, looks almost like your Facebook wall. Except that most subjects remain culturally centric. Politics fan, go your way.
This is for you if:
– You have a bit of an artistic soul
– You have a bit of nostalgia for Skyblogs
It’s not for you if:
– You weren’t much of a visual arts fan in high school
– You are looking to follow hot news
3 Talk: Right-Wing Twitter
If you know Talk to, you probably discovered the network in July 2020, when Marion Maréchal called on her subscribers to join her on the platform “to avoid the censorship of Twitter.” The young network (created in 2018), which is very close to Twitter in its functionality and ergonomics, is experiencing little success, driven by the American conservative right that is not too fond of Twitter moderation. The French extreme right joined the movement, Marion Maréchal was the leader. Two years later, the now vice-president of Reconquest (Eric Zemmour’s party) left. And it is far from alone. It’s hard to find French speakers, even from the far right. The algorithm shows us posts from American Internet users, often on political topics. Desperately looking for a French interlocutor, we find ourselves typing “France” into the search bar. We are then offered the account of the far right conspiratorial movement “Qanon France”. A full program…
This is for you if:
– You are pro-Trump AND an English speaker
It’s not for you if:
– You have the English level of François Hollande
– You are not far to the right
4 Counter Social: presented as the safest social network
The registration at Counter Social is easy, the first post is just as easy and the interface is pretty easy to use. We are not lost in relation to Twitter. Hashtags, mentions, notifications, the vocabulary is essentially the same as the blue bird social network. Even the default oval profile picture looks eerily similar to Twitter’s. Additional marketing argument: “No trolls, no bots, no abuse, no advertising, no fake news and no foreign influence operations”. Moreover, Counter Social blocks its access to Russian, Chinese, Iranian, North Korean, Syrian or Pakistani users among others. But behind these good promises, we quickly find ourselves facing a big problem: the complete absence of French Internet users… and the automatic translation is not a real help.
This is for you if:
– You don’t want to radically change your environment compared to Twitter…
-… but you are looking for a more “philanthropic” community
It’s not for you if:
– Your English stutters
– You expect to receive many and regular notifications (in French)
5 Vero: a desert Instagram
Launched in 2015, the app true is easy to use, has a very nice design, and the big advantage of being free (for now) and without advertising… But above all, it’s hopeless, if you consider it from the French point of view. And here, it is difficult, at the moment, to find a reliable alternative to Twitter. Dedicated to sharing photos or “recommendations” of musical pieces (by sharing excerpts), movies (by poster), places, apps or video games, Vero allows you to choose , per post, if one wants. it will only be distributed to close friends or wider. More than Twitter, Vero could be an alternative to Instagram… if it doesn’t lack the “social” expected of a social network.
This is for you if:
– You are looking for an ergonomic and well thought out social network
– You want to talk alone… or you are looking for a platform to use “privately”, with your friends
It’s not for you if:
– You are looking for a rich network of users and content
– What interests you in a network is the debate of ideas (political, philosophical, etc.)
6 Gab: Speaking… but worse
The operation of Gab? somewhere between Twitter and Facebook: you can publish, anonymously, “Gab” limited to 3,000 characters, but the social network is also organized into groups and has a “marketplace” tab. It also offers a “news” section where there are many articles from FoxNews or Gateway Pundit, an American site known for sharing misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Presented as a true bastion of the far right – Gab was closed for some time because the author of the anti-Semitic massacre in Pittsburgh, in the United States, in 2018, visited him – the social network created in Texas is… worse than that. Unlike Parler, the French community there is quite large: a group of GAB France collects more than 20,000 followers, who alternate the most disgusting posts, between racism and misogyny, whose content will be criminal in France. Account creators even pride themselves on growing their community after deleting the profiles of Alain Soral or the Breton neo-Nazi Boris Le Lay. Go your way.
This is for you if:
– You are a fan of Alain Soral and Boris Le Lay
– You are an accomplice
– You seek to overcome “the corrupt journalism sold to the globalists”
It’s not for you if:
– You are not racist or misogynistic (and we congratulate you on that)
– You want to cut yourself off from the functionality of traditional social networks
7 Clubhouse: a type of audio Twitch
If you can’t listen to your friends’ voices for more than two minutes, run away. The principle of club house : you subscribe to people or “clubs”, according to more or less broad themes (cinema, running, reading, meditation, etc.) to take part in discussions (called “rooms “). Live podcast, in other words, can also be listened to on replay. Only here, if the concept appeals to fans of the audio format, which allows you to do your business while looking from your screen, you are quickly disappointed by the difficulty of the content available. And a platform without a creator doesn’t make you stick around. Especially since the idea of chat rooms was copied by Twitter after the (ephemeral) success of Clubhouse in 2021.
This is for you if:
– You like the audio format and Twitter’s “Spaces” feature
– You are a polyglot
It’s not for you if:
– You are more painful punchlines than long speeches
– You prefer short content
8 Hive: nice, but not working
HiveSocial, it’s all pretty full but it doesn’t work. Right now, creating an account can be an adventure in itself (we didn’t receive the confirmation code in our first email address). Once you’re inside the app, the colors glow (they’re wildly reminiscent of Instagram), the Twitter birdhouse is transformed into a beehive, a “Discover” tab evokes Instagram or Snapchat … In other words, we are far from being out of place, but we have enough to drool over. We start writing a first post, we want to publish it, and it’s spinning, it’s spinning, it’s spinning… The little charging icon, you’ll often see it in Hive and , bad news, it doesn’t stop turning. It’s simple, for two weeks, we haven’t posted a single thing. Also can’t access our profile.
For users where it works, Hive seems to offer extensive customization, a chronological feed stripped of Twitter’s ugly algorithm. But in fact, the app, which is still in beta versions, is currently full of bugs. Created in October 2019 by an American, it must be said that the service does not have the human resources of the behemoths in the sector, and is struggling to support the new users who have arrived in recent weeks in search of an alternative to Twitter. So we have to wait for this small network full of promise to improve over time, and learn to secure its users’ data.
This is for you if:
– You are lucky it works
– You are looking for a mix between Twitter and Instagram
It’s not for you if:
– Looking for a stable network that works without a hitch
– You care about your personal data
