Decentralized Instagram alternative Pixelfed launches mobile apps

- ~~It has a dark mode now (on iOS, at least. Maybe they’ve got a different codebase for Android)~~
  Edit: Scratch that. Only the login flow has dark mode.
- I hope they also add a feature for short video clips.
  
  loops.video integration wen?
  
  They've had one for a while.
- I couldn’t find it in the App Store. How do you get it?
- The screencap in the article looks pretty dark to me? Is there something that needs to be dark that the example pic doesn't show? Asking as someone that turns everything to dark mode.
  
  As of now, the iOS app does not have a dark mode. Though, I believe the Android version does.

No dark mode, no use.
- PixelDroid is a client that supports dark mode.
  
  Pixelix feels a lot more modern and is now on fdroid!
- There are tons of apps which don't have a dark mode and you are writing off fediverse app just because it doesn't have it. Fediverse apps should be supported instead being judged harshly.
  
  And I don't use them, either. I'm a contributor to multiple Fediverse projects, including Lemmy-based apps and full identity management with ActivityPub. We do not deserve to get held to lower standards if we want the Fediverse to grow, especially when it comes to features that are about things like eye comfort, which can be a mild accessibility issue for some.
  Dark mode is a basic necessity in apps today. It's not a convenience, but a necessity for adoption. There are many people who are going to open the app, then never use it again because of something that's bog-standard in the libraries and should only take a few hours to work in, which should have been done before an announcement.
  So yes, I speak up, because I want this to succeed.
  Edit: And yes, I'm very excited to see the growth achieved in the other post. Fantastic news.
  @corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca, @'ing you so I'm not responding in two places 😉 I appreciate the work of the team, but it doesnt change the fact that to many, this is a showstopper and I'm pretty surprised it wasn't considered as a basic UX requirement pre-launch (see other comments in response to you).
- If all the things in the work queue, you're balking on a COLOUR SCHEME?
  That's like stopping the construction crew for using the wrong colour work boots, man!
  
  you’re balking on a COLOUR SCHEME
  How can I not?? Dx
  
  light mode gives me migraines dude. it's more important than just a color preference.
  
  No dark mode, no use.
  BTW, work boot color is absolutely regulated depending on context. For example here in Germany, if you work in sterile or food-related industries then shoes are to be issued and used with a color that cannot inherently hide stains by the material you're working with, to prevent accidentally carrying contaminations into other clean zones.
  So yes, you would stop the construction crew for using the wrong color work boots.
  
  It's more like stopping the construction crew from painting your house a colour you hate. Which sounds more reasonable
  
  No it isn't, if a modern app doesn't have dark-mode to protect your eyes Then it's a health-hazard

I just installed and is pretty neat. Truly a photo first social media.
- Wanted to add, I recently tried #pixelix for #pixelfed, and I might actually like this app better that the official.
  https://app.pixelix.social/ https://github.com/daniebeler/pixelix https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.daniebeler.pfpixelix
  The beauty of the #openinternet, #freesoftware, #socialweb and #activitypub
- Great. Then all the people who just post photos on Lemmy can gtfo
  
  I don't agree, this actually a good opportunity for #pixelfed to support #groups so people who want their post to reach a larger audience can choose a magazine/community to post.

how are they paying for the hosting?
- Donations and NLNet grant, you can support Pixelfed yourself
  https://pixelfed.org/support-our-project

Absolutely NO sexuality explicit content. This includes, but not limited to, images/videos/chat around sexual acts. There are other places on the internet for this.
😥
- Seems fair. There are many places for erotic/porn content on the web. And for a federated network it is good to not force instance owners to manage avoiding the hosting of nudity by federating it.
  
  Nudity isn't inherently sexual, and they pointedly have not mentioned it in the quoted text. It sounds like only explicit sexual content is forbidden, not nudity.
  I do think even this is an overreach for a federated network, though, assuming Pixelfed is enforcing this on all instances (is that even possible?). It should be on the instance owners to make that decision. I couldn't find where the quoted text is sourced from, however.
- Someone could just start a NSFW version, right?
  
  There's an "Adult" section in pixelfed.org's instance list
- https://pixelfed.org/servers -> Adult 😉
- Are they spying on my chats? How would they know its contents?
  
  Unless E2EE is implemented - the service owner can see all the messages, as they are stored in plain text.
- Fortunately we have PMs, right?

Really enjoying Pixelfed. In fact I have found it's fairly smooth going replacing Meta apps and Twitter.

Is Pixelfed an appropriate place to upload an image to share on Lemmy / Mastodon?
- It’s doable, but you might as well just upload it here. But for smaller albums, it would be a good idea.
  
  What's the intended use case for Pixelfed?
  
  I wish we could have multiple photos in posts here. Yes, we can put other photos in the description, but it would be nice to view all of them without opening the post.
- I've been doing that exact thing, but only as long as the images would be Instagram-worthy in the first place. Not just temporary junk. I figure it's probably more optimized for picture storage, since that's the whole point right? Plus then I get it two places instead of one!
  If you use the raw media link itself instead of the link to the post, it displays on Lemmy exactly the same as if you'd uploaded it here in the first place. So that's nice.
- Well that's the neat part, you don't! If you post on Pixelfed you're already on Mastodon.
  ...I suppose you can reshare it if you want. Me, I just point people to my Pixelfed account on my Mastodon profile and vice versa.
  
  I wonder if they were thinking like how before Reddit had image galleries, people would use imgur

Why is their top instance not compatible? Pixelfed.social gives me errors when I try to auth
- I didn't get any error. Probably just overwhelmed by new users 😆
- It is compatible. You need to jump through the email confirmation hoop before it’ll actually work with the app though. So if your account is new, that’s probably the reason.
  Besides that, it could just be the mass influx of new users that are fleeing Instagram.
- Probably a max exodus from Tiktokers who refuse to use Instagram.
  
  id imagine most of those people are on rednote
- Just need to check again later. I had this same error at first.

I have a Pixelfed account and have tried the app.
But I can't actually make posts using it. Don't know where the hiccup is.
- People are saying that the servers are overloaded at the moment from all the new people trying it out.
  
  I wish there was an easy way to know which servers are getting hammered more than others.
  I can easily make a post to my server via the website, but the app was giving me trouble, as an example. That's why I wonder where the hiccup is/was. Both the website and app are just interfaces to get data to a server, so if one doesn't work I'd assume the other doesn't too. But I dunno.
  Edit: After writing this I went back and tried posting from the app again. It finally worked! I guess things have settled down.

I’m a little underwhelmed by the iOS app itself, but the content is great
Hopefully Pixelfed continues to bloom into a solid community!
The app doesn’t really feel native, and doesn’t have features like clicking to enlarge an image. If it’s open source I’d look into helping though
- I don’t know. Pictures of people’s dog and what they’re eating for lunch. It’s like subscribing to getty images.

That's odd. I've had the app for like 3 months.
- It's as a reaction to the news about TikTok possibly being sold and people jumping to "Red Book", the other Chinese platform. Maybe some people will read the TechCrunch article and consider Pixelfed.
  
  I like pixel fed, but like all federated websites, it doesn't have a lot of content yet.
  HMU bb https://pxlmo.com/jakelec
  
  I'm still trying to figure out why anybody uses ANY software of Chinese origin.
  But all it needs to be is "fun" I guess. People literally don't think past that. Then they all do the surprised Pikachu face when something bad happens.
  I've always hated TikTok, and avoided it like the plague. I'm not convinced it's a whole psyop or anything, but my trust of it is basically negative.
  As for government meddling, I'm not sure yet how I feel about it in this case.
- The beta, not sure how you missed that.
  
  Damn, you are right. Now that you mention it, I did signup for the beta through their website. I just forgot.

It looks like the recommended Pixelfed instance, pixelfed.social, is running an outdated version of the platform. Aka the instance most new users will login to, and the one I created my account on last year. I guess I could make an account elsewhere, but meh. Hopefully they get that sorted

The Impressia for Pixelfed app has been serving me well the past 6 months.
- I was wondering about that app as I saw the listing. I'm glad someone likes it.

On that note, has anyone here gotten into the Surf (the Flipboard thing) beta? I got in, but the download link does not work, but from what I understand that's supposed to turn into a whole-federation browser starting with the microblogging sites (Mastodon + Bluesky + Threads), so I wonder whether they'll add support for Pixelfed et al in the future.
- I'm still on the waitlist. Download link not working sounds weird
- Wow, I was unaware of this, it looks so promising...

once again tried to register. this time, the biggest instance doesn't even load.
- It might help to pick a smaller instance.
- pixey.org is a good one to try
- Rough.
  I wonder how easy it is to spin up your own instance. Or course, that's out of reach for most non-technical folks.

Yeah I tried the beta before. I just got a new smartphone so I'm happy it's available I the app store.

I'm really interested in trying pixelfed, but the 15 character username limit is really restrictive. I don't want to sign up with a name that doesn't match the handle I already use on instagram and other related places. They have a github issue for it, but it there's no indication of when it might actually be changed.

Is that like a federated version of flikr?
- I think it’s supposed to be like old instagram.
  
  @surphninja old instagram was good as it was.

Is this platform from that aggressive guy who has mental problems?
- I just read all that along with the "dossier" they compiled and it seemed pretty weak in my view. Yeah, the guy sounds a little bit passive-aggressive, but I think "mental problems" is way too strong an evaluation. That dossier is almost exclusively one-sided too, as in, we only see his posts, and not the context of what he was responding to. Many many people could be made to look bad if only their responses were posted without context. This seems like the worse kind of Fedidrama. I wish I could have the time I spent reading that back.