Decentralized alternative to Instagram Pixelfed launches mobile apps

Pixelfeda decentralized alternative to Instagram, launched its the official mobile applications. The service today runs on the same ActivityPub protocol that powers an open source X alternative MastodonPeerTube competes with YouTube, and other decentralized social apps, including now Meta The threads and Flipboard (plus their new app, Surf), which are part of a growing push toward a more open social web known as fediverse.

Pixelfed was originally developed in 2018 by Daniel Supernault, who also recently created it TikTok federated rival loops. Similar to Instagram, Pixelfed allows users to share and discover photos and videos, and send direct messages to others. However, very unlike Instagram, Pixelfed is ad-free, open source, decentralized and defaults users to chronological feeds – which are its selling points to users.

Because it is part of the fediverse, users can choose to join one of the community servers or self-host a Pixelfed instance.

Prior to the debut of Pixelfed’s mobile app, you could use Pixelfed via the web or through third-party mobile apps such as impression. Now, the service offers its own official mobile app for Android and iOS, following its previous beta tests.

Pixelfed Android launched right before today’s iOS app, and it took just two days to reach 10,000 downloads, noticed Supernault on his Mastodon account. The app is also now No. 1 Social App on Google Play in a number of markets, including the United States

Pixelfed applications are free to use and do not collect user data.