Mammoth, a new iOS app for Mastodon, launches

Mammoth is a new iOS app for Mastodon that launched this week. The app launches into a crowded and competitive field of Mastodon iOS apps, with other competition such as Ice Cubes, Ivory, Mastodon's own official app, and a host of others. Mammoth has three main features that it advertises to stand out:

• An easy way to join, with a direct registration possible on their own instance, moth.social.
• Mammoth advertises with 'the only iOS app that offers access to all the Mastodon features', a dubious claim.
• An onboarding flow that helps you select some accounts and hashtags to follow when you first set up your account.

The app is build by The BLVD, a 7-people start-up, that is funded at least in part by Mozilla, and other investors that the organization is in the process of disclosing the names of. One of the main developers of the app is Shihab Mehboob, who has made an iOS app for Mastodon before: Mast. Mehboob sold the app (asking price: 9750 USD, actual sale price unknown) to another developer.

Chris Trottier did a deep dive into reviewing the app, and sharing his thoughts in a thread, here. He concludes: "A buggy, confusing app with too many features that are implemented poorly. There's too many dark patterns. And there's legit security issues pertaining to so-called "private" messages. I do not recommend this app."

Claiming to be the only app that is fully featured is a risky proposition, as that immediately invites questions of comparisons with other apps. This raised some eyebrows with Eugen Rochko, who rightfully pointed out that the Mastodon iOS app also has these features. Even more so, it seems like Mammoth is missing some crucial features: for example, it does not display content that is posted from servers that do not run Mastodon, such as Pleroma or CalcKey. This is one of the core defining characteristics of the fediverse, the ability to interact with each other even if you do not use the same software.

The BLVD, the company behind Mammoth, has large expenses compared to other iOS app makers: Ivory, another premium iOS app with a monthly subscription service, is run by a team of 2 developers. Ice Cubes is free, open-source and currently one of the leading apps in the iOS space, build and maintained by a single developer. In contrast, Mammoth employs 7 people, plus the potential need for providing returns to investors. Mammoth says that they have not yet decided on a business model, but that it will likely be an optional subscription service. The results of the implementation will be worth watching: it's hard to implement an optional paywall for a product that can also be gotten for free somewhere else.

The growth of the fediverse means an influx of new experiments in how people try to make money of it, with Mammoth being a premier example of this. It will be interesting to see if they can pull it off.

You can try Mammoth at getmammoth.app.