Alternatives to X (Twitter)

Twitter (now known as X) started out as a message broadcasting service (think "mass texting") for mobile phones in 2006. Data plans on mobile phones at the time were limited or non-existent, so Twitter started out with content that was short (140 character maximum) and text-only!

Its hyper-short form evolved into the "micro-blog" (at least during the late 2000s and early 2010s). This format become one of a few dominant types of social media. Several websites or apps soon borrowed aspects of other sites into their own. Twitter gradually grew into a hot mess of features, both for the desktop computer and the more sophisticated "smart" phone.

For whatever reason, I have listed and reviewed some alternatives to the micro-blogging service:

Minds

Reminiscent of Old Facebook, Minds offers a clean platform that almost feels devoid of radicals and encourages simple free expression:

• features
  • hashtags are separated from the post for a more elegant folksonomy
  • very clean and intuitive interface
  • ability to earn tokens and credits from content
• caveats
  • has not gained widespread usage even in the alternative world
• politics
  • relatively neutral but leans towards libertarians
• apps
  • official mobile app available but with restrictions
  • "best viewed on a desktop browser" but useable on mobile

Telegram

Most people first encounter Telegram as a "WhatsApp" or "texting" alternative but it features much more than that. Group chats aside, one can start fully fledged microblogs with built-in search functionalities.

One can post one-liners or post rich media such as images, audio and video. While the interface takes some getting used to, it offers a very rewarding platform for content creation and storage:

• features
  • peer-to-peer chats, as well as "channels" that resemble Twitter/X feeds
    • posts can have unlimited length and can also have polls, audio, images, video, etc.
    • "channels" (i.e. timelines) can have a "preview URL" that displays content in the form of a blog
      • e.g. https://t.me/s/jonchius
    • a channel admin can control what kind of "reaction emojis" a post gets (with an option to turn off reactions completely)
    • can allow or disallow replies to posts
  • your "home feed" has no algorithms: the channel with the most recent content shows up on top, and the entire channel gets displayed!
• warnings
  • a very unique "usage flow" that takes getting used to
  • a user has to know about or search your channel and subscribe to it
    • algorithms won't recommend content to the general public
• politics
  • usually associated with Eastern Europe (its founder comes from the former Soviet Union)
    • however, you choose your audience and followings!
  • a very uncensored app with everything from all across the spectrum
• apps
  • official mobile app available
  • very useable on desktop and mobile

Others

Other exist but they either don't have widespread use like:

• Plurk (around since 2008)

... or they have very restrictive policies on what you can post there:

• Threads
• Mastodon
• Bluesky (an instance of Mastodon)

...or are just too politically charged like:

• Gab
• Truth Social
• Parler

Of course, there also exist some that target a certain language group or region like:

• Sina Weibo (Chinese)
• VK (Russian)

I've had accounts on all of those networks, but prefer not to use them (due to a lack of time and energy needed to maintain them!)

In addition, one could theoretically make any website a "microblog": just ignore all the other features and post your one-liners there!

Possibilities include some very old and familiar-sounding names:

• WordPress (great for long posts)
• Tumblr (great for medium-sized posts)
• Facebook (great for sharing among familiar people)