Social media is changing, and I’m not wrong to say that Twitter, or rather X, has changed forever. Therefore, when the changes introduced by the beloved (and also criticized) Elon Musk upset the community, I remember the existing alternatives, like Bluesky or Mastodon.
We don’t have to stay in X, let alone Mastodon being a similar alternative. The only problem, at least for me, was that I didn’t feel comfortable using the official app. But this is no longer an obstacle: The megalodon is to blame.
Looking for an alternative to the official app
X decided it was best to block alternative apps that also provided access. Another compelling reason to use similar services. Mastodon is a free and decentralized social network
Regardless, I ended up using it, discovering the good and healthy communities that abound in many cases. However, I found one drawback: the application has a simple but somewhat outdated interface. Yes, it uses Material Design, however, it does not follow the design lines of the most recent versions of Android.
As I am obsessed with the aesthetic part of the applications that I use on my Android mobile, I started looking for a third-party application, which is not rare to find and which is much better designed than the official applications . This is what happens with Megalodoneasy to find because my colleague Iván Linares cited it as one of the best apps of 2023.
Megalodon for mastodon
Megalodon is a modified version of the official Mastodon app for Android that adds important features missing in the official app.
Here is Megalodon, my favorite application to use Mastodon
Like the official client, Megalodon is very light: installed only occupies 20 mega
We have Material You in every corner, beautifying buttons, switches and, in general, the interface. In addition, the scrolling of the feed is very smooth, more visible on a screen with a refresh rate above 60 hertz. It’s for me, the most differential.
And if that wasn’t enough, the settings allow you to change it completely. Let’s take a tour through them. In the ‘Behavior’ section we can configure many aspects, such as the use of the internal browser, or confirmations when performing an action: in general, the behavior of the application.
In ‘View’ we are allowed to adjust the appearance, with device-friendly themes. Additionally, it is able to follow the accent color of our wallpaper, which improves the feeling of consistency with Google’s operating system. Use personalized emojis, minimize long posts, underline links… a thousand and one adjustments to leave it to our taste.
Next, we have privacy settings, allowing you to choose a personalized view of publications: for example, “Subscribers only” or “Mentioned people”. This gives a lot of play. On the other hand, the notifications work very well, and yes, they are too customizable in detail.
Ultimately, what Megalodon allows us to do is to “design” our own Mastodon space, in conjunction with a design language consistent with the operating system, and numerous tools to scrupulously personalize the experience. None is equal to it and if you are a Mastodon user, don’t hesitate: it will not disappoint you.
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