Menus #
The left menu allows you to switch among and log out of sessions, view/edit your profile, and set your account and app preferences.
The top menu allows you to select among feeds, including the home feed, local/global feeds for the current instance, feeds for followed hashtags and users, and other lists such as trends, search, followers/followees…
The top right thumbnail is a reminder of the current instance you’re operating in. Tapping it brings up the instance description.
Context Menus #
Long-press, on posts and avatars for example, will bring up a context menu with more options.
Long-press on profile headers for more options, including reporting accounts, browsing their instance.
When in doubt, long-press to see if there are more options.
Feeds #
In most screens with lists, including feeds, pull-down to refresh. Feeds do not auto-refresh. Double-tap on a post in the feed to see its conversation (replies and replied-to posts). The reply menu at the bottom of a post has a thread feature which will just show the post comprising the author’s thread, if any.
Fullscreen Images #
Tap on images to see full screen/full resolution view.
Double-tap on card thumbnails to see full screen/full resolution views.
Alt Text #
Fedicat encourages alt text by requiring descriptions for every attachment when you post.
Missing buttons #
Also to encourage alt text, posts in feeds will not display favorite and boost buttons for posts that are missing alt text, but those options are available in the context menu.
Reply buttons are not displayed for posts from accounts that indicate they are bots (because what’s the point). Again, the option is in the context menu if you really want it.
Link Icons #
Brand icons are displayed for recognized links in profiles, filters, and the link menu in the post composer. The X icon is tinted red because they’re awful (there are a lot of awful brands, like all Meta, but X is the worst of the worst).
Not Features (but never say never) #
- cross-platform (e.g. Android). Since this is Swift/SwiftUI, forget about it (despite the Swift corporate marketing spiel that it’s The One and Only Programming Language).
- macOS version. The iOS testflight builds can be run on macOS, but I have no plans to make a separate macOS build.
- watchOS version. Same.
- non-Mastodon API (mbin, bookwyrm…). This is built with a fork of TootSDK, extended to handle more platforms and additional APIs, but still assuming a good deal Mastodon API compatibility. But anything that supports nodeinfo (which is most), should have their instance info viewable from the instance browser (some recognized but unsupported platforms are listed in the instance browser)
- admin functions (e.g. moderation). I started to support this because it would be handy for anyone running their own instances, but it’s just too much right now.
- non-Fediverse - no, not interested, there’s plenty of fediverse to play with (but there has been discussion about adding bluesky support in TootSDK)
- streaming feeds. Personally, I don’t see the need. Looks great in movies, but pulldown refresh is enough, and maybe better for your sanity.
- push notifications. Honestly, don’t want to deal with the Apple part and running a relay (life is simpler if you don’t have to maintain servers). So I may try to get away with just some polling. And see above about sanity.
- themes. No custom themes, just responsive to the system light/dark mode and type size settings.
- iPad layout. None of that sidebar stuff.
- download attachments. I see a lot of uncredited media posted, and I want to don’t want to enable features that violate original posters’ intentions, e.g. when I publicly post a I’m happy to have it boosted but that doesn’t mean I want anyone to download the image and do what they want with it. That said, you can always go to the Link menu and view the post in a browser and do whatever the browser lets you do.
- copy and paste. Same as above, but also enabling select/copy in the current text renderer interferes with the current tap handler (tap is reserved for links and double-tap for viewing the post context/thread)
Other Apps #
There are dozens of Mastodon and other fediverse apps on the App Store, and fortunately they all have different approaches and target customers (otherwise it would be pretty boring!). So if this app doesn’t fulfill your requirements, there are plenty of others to choose from (and there’s nothing to say you can’t use more than one). But please keep in mind, most of them are developed by individual developers for free, or at most by small teams, so be supportive!