Three Tips for Migrating to Mastodon from Twitter

As a user who has been using Mastodon for a few months, I have noticed that many people from the Apple community, including content creators, writers, developers, podcasters, and ordinary fans, have all made the switch from Twitter to Mastodon. This has led me to share my own tips and experiences with those who are new to the platform.

Tip Number One: Don't Worry Too Much About Which Instance You Pick

One of the most common misconceptions about Mastodon is that there is a single, unified instance that you need to sign up for in order to use the platform. However, this is not the case. Just like email, you have to choose a specific server or instance to join. This means that you can follow anyone from anywhere on the platform, without any real limitations. Most of the servers are completely free, and if you want to get on mastodon.social, which is the largest instance, you can use Cult of Mac's invitation link if you click on it or in the video description.

However, there is one important thing to consider when choosing an instance. If you have someone's profile open in Safari and you want to follow them, you can only press the follow button if you are on the same instance. Otherwise, you need to open their profile as it appears on your own instance. This may seem complicated and annoying, but it is a necessary feature of the platform.

Tip Number Two: Work Arounds for Following People

The limitation mentioned in Tip Number One can be frustrating, especially when trying to follow someone from another instance. However, there are a few workarounds that can make following people much easier. I use a third-party app on my phone called Mona, which allows me to easily open and follow profiles across different instances. To use this feature, I tap the share button in Safari, scroll down a little bit, and select "Open in Mona". This opens up the profile in a new window, where I can see that I am already following them.

Another solution for those who want to stay within Safari is to use Federico Viticci's Siri shortcut. When you tap the share button, you can select this shortcut, which allows you to follow someone from another instance without having to open a third-party app.

Tip Number Three: Customizing Your Mastodon Experience

In addition to following people across different instances, there are many other ways that you can customize your Mastodon experience. One of my favorite features is the ability to create custom shares and hashtags for specific posts. For example, I have created a custom hashtag for my podcast, which allows me to easily share new episodes with my followers.

Another way to customize your Mastodon experience is by using third-party apps that offer additional features and functionality. There are many different apps available, ranging from simple post schedulers to advanced analytics tools. By using these apps, you can enhance your Mastodon experience and make it more tailored to your specific needs.

Overall, I hope these tips have been helpful in navigating the world of Mastodon. With a little bit of practice and patience, anyone can become comfortable with this powerful platform.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI have three tips for people moving over to Mastodon.So a lot of the Apple community of content creators, writers, developers, podcasters, and peasants — and ordinary fans,have all moved over from Twitter to Mastodon.I've been using it for a few months now, so I have some tips for all the newcomers.Tip number one, don't worry so much about which instance you pick.There's no singular Mastodon that you sign up for.Just like email, you have to pick a specific server.Now you can still follow anybody from anywhere,there's no real limitations there.Most of the servers are completely free.But if you want to get on mastodon.social, which is the biggest one,you can use Cult of Mac’s invitation link if you click there or in the video description.There is actually one hitch that you need to think about.So if you have somebody's profile open in Safari and you want to follow them,You can only press the follow button if you're on the same instance.Otherwise, you need to open their profile as it appears on your own instance.It sounds complicated and annoying — because it is —but that brings me to tip number two.I have a few ways you can work around this.So I'm looking at this account in Safari, and it's hosted on mastodon.social.Now I can't just tap the follow button. It won't do anything, because mastodon.socialisn't the server that manages my account.But I have a few third party apps on my phone to make that really easy.You tap the share button, scroll down a little bit, and I have these three actions righthere because I have these three third party apps on my phone.So I can just tap Open in Mona.Oh! And there it is.I can see that I'm already following them.It's really that simple.Now you might not want to be thrown out to another app and you might want to stay insideSafari.Well, the king of shortcuts himself, Federico Viticci, has a solution for you.You tap the share button and I have this Siri shortcut called \"Masto Redirect\".You tap it, and in a new tab, it opens up the same profile on the same account and I cansee that I'm already following them.Both of these are so convenient and effective that the whole \"follow people from your owninstance\" problem might as well not exist.Tip number three.So while Twitter is charging people money for the privilege of keeping their accountsecure, you can set up two-factor authentication on Mastodon for free really easily.It's the best kind of security because it keeps your account way more secure, and it'sso well integrated into the iPhone and the Mac that it's a completely invisible process.Let me show you how to set it up.Now say I have this account here and I want to add two-factor authentication.Well, you tap the settings button, you tap this menu and you go to account.Tap this menu again, and you go to two-factor auth, and you tap setup.Now you can bring up the QR code on a computer and then scan it with your phone, but I'mdoing this all on my iPhone, so I'm just going to copy this code right here.Then you open up settings, and you scroll down to passwords, and you want to scrolldown and open up the password for your Mastodon account, and you tap setup verification code.This is where you'd scan the QR code if you have two devices, but I'm just going to tapenter setup key and paste what I copied earlier.And tap OK.Then you'll get this verification code here.You copy that and you can see that it's already recommending it.So you just tap this.It'll do face ID again and there you go.Now you'll be given these two-factor codes.You'll want to screenshot these or write them down somewhere or keep them somewhereelse.So if you ever lose access to your device, you can still get into your account.But don't bother trying to hack this account,it'll already be deleted by the time this video is published.Wait, one more thing!You can follow Cult of Mac on Mastodon!We post all of our news, reviews, how tos, setups, guides, all on Mastodon as soon asthey're published.And you can follow me on Mastodon.For some reason.Wait, wait!One last thing.I'm going to go through some of my favorite apps that I've been trying out.Ice Cubes is free and open source for iPhone, iPad, and Macs with Apple Silicon.And it's a pretty good app.It has all the basic features.The official Mastodon client is available for iPhone and Android.If Android compatibility matters to you, being the official app, it supports all the basicfeatures as you can expect.It looks and works pretty similarly to the website.Mona is the one I'm trying out for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, even on the Intel Macs.What I love about this one is that the timeline sync between the iPhone and the Mac is likelightning fast.I didn't even think that iCloud was capable of syncing anything that fast.It isn't officially released on the App Store yet, but you can find links to join theTestFlight in the video description.Ivory by TapBots is resurrected from the bones of TweetBot, which was one of the most popularTwitter clients.This is very well polished, very well designed, and easily the most reliable one that I'vetried out so far. A Mac version is coming but it's not available yet and you canbuy it right now in the App Store. Mammoth is another one for iPhone and Macby Shihab Mehboob. This one is very fully featured, easily the most pro features ofany of the apps I've tested so far, and it looks very much at home on the iPhone.So those are all of my Mastodon tips. You can find links to everything I talkedabout in the video description. I'm D. Griffin Jones with Cult of Mac.\n"