Tusky for Android

Third party Mastodon app, free open source software, available from Google Play (free) ⧉ and F-Droid (free) ⧉

Screenshot of Tusky app for Android showing the main settings screen
Screenshot of Tusky app for Android, showing the Home timeline with a couple of art posts
Screenshot of Tusky for Android, showing a post about a heron with a pretty photo of it
Screenshot of a profile page on Tusky, for the GBH News account, showing a metadata section with a small verified tick symbol
Screenshot of the Aviation Librarian's account's media section showing lots of aeroplane pictures.
Screenshot of a post being edited in Tusky, showing an attached image and the emoji menu open.
Screenshot of an image caption being edited in Tusky
Screenshot of editing the focus on an image in Tusky
Screenshot of a message being edited in Tusky with a dialogue box asking if the user wants to save it as a draft.
Screenshot of the post scheduling screen in Tusky showing a calendar.
Screenshot of the account preferences menu in Tusky showing many options including Notifications, Tabs, Followed Hashtags, Muted and Blocked Users, Hidden Domains and Filters. More options are below this out of view of the screenshot.
Screenshot of the custom tab settings page on Tusky where the main interface's tabs are chosen.
Screenshot of the Filter editing page on Tusky.
Screenshot of the trending hashtags page on Tusky showing many tags with graphs next to them showing their popularity over time.
Screenshot of the general app preferences page on Tusky.
Screenshots from Tusky v22.0

General impressions

Solid, reliable and mature with continual development and updates. Works the way you would expect it to, and matches up nicely with the website interface. This is what the official Android app should have been.

Nice stuff

  • One of the longest-supported Mastodon apps, been around longer than the official app
  • Feels very intuitive, arranged logically
  • Free open source software
  • Lots of features that are missing from the official app and/or website, such as scheduled posts, drafts, reversal of reading order, image cropping etc.
  • Other features include post editing, image focus editing, bookmarks, lists, polls, hashtag following, filters, private profile notes, all post visibilities including Unlisted, all timelines
  • Custom tabs, you can pick up to five from Home, Local, Federated, Notifications, DMs, Trending Hashtags, Lists, Hashtag Columns
  • Hashtag tabs can include multiple hashtags in one tab, and you can have multiple separate hashtag tabs, which is really useful for creating your own custom themed timelines
  • Switch between tabs very easily by swiping (swiping can be deactivated too)
  • Support for multiple accounts at once, with separate settings pages for each account
  • People sick of clout-chasing can switch off all the boost/favourite/follower numbers, which can be good for mental health
  • Warning icon to remind you to add text descriptions

Potential drawbacks

  • No option to view trending posts
  • Custom tabs are fantastic, but the five tab limit can be frustrating
  • Verification of links on profiles not very clear, the icon could be confused with fake verification icons made with custom emoji
  • Profile descriptions formatted slightly messily, especially metadata elements
  • Some people overlook the Add Poll button as it’s sort of hidden in the attachment menu

Hints & Tips

  • Tusky is a volunteer-run project providing free software, you can donate to keep it going at the Tusky Open Collective page ⧉
  • To see your own profile page, tap your profile icon twice (once to open the settings page, then again to show your profile page)
  • To make a draft, start writing a post and close it without actually posting it . You can find a complete list of drafts from the settings page.
  • To add a poll, click the attachment button 📎 and then select Add Poll

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