Silly Mastodon apps
Just like used to be the case with Twitter, there are a lot of very nice third-party apps for Mastodon. I’m not neccesarily very good at making those, or at least do not usually feel like writing good software for fun most days, but I do maintain Mastodon.py and as such occassionally feel like writing software that actually uses it. That being so, I have created an abundance of slightly silly Mastodon apps. Here are a few.
1. Hello MoToot
Remember posting to Twitter from your Nokia brick phone via SMS while on the way back from an Anonymous anti-Scientology protest? No? Just me? Anyways, you used to be able to post to Twitter via SMS (real ones remember), and with Hello MoToot, you can do the same with Mastodon - just register, and start sending SMS to toot! Or, even better, toot via voice - just call the number!
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Internally, this uses Twilio, and is currently using a Twilio trial account with like 10 USD left on it, and once that money is gone, it will stop working until I recharge it, which I may or may not do. If you actually want to post via SMS in 2025 for some reason, do feel free to set up a version yourself, the source code for this (and all of the other silly clients I’ve made) is available!
2. Mastofuse.py
mastofuse.py is a Mastodon client for the file system, using fusepy. You can mount your account, look at posts, attachments, timelines, accounts, post new posts, boost posts, and mostly it shouldn’t break too much.
@AndyPiper@macaw.social even managed to make it look pretty presentable for actual post reading using shell black magic and lynx and timg:
I couldn’t get remote access via SMB to work - that seems to demand a more proper file system with support for more operations than what I’ve implemented - but via VSCode remote functionality, it totally kind of partially works (it hung trying to load the account data).
3. Mastodon-LaTeXclient
Work in a scientific setting, or a setting where, in any case, you might sometiems read large margin PDFs set in Computer Modern (if you follow me, chances are high)? Want to slack off during work hours? Here’s the perfect, read only Mastodon client for you: Mastodon-LaTeXclient turns your timeline into a paper, so you can have very subtly have it open on a screen off to the side!
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4. Florps
You (probably) know the deal. Likes are now these. Timeline goes sideways..
5. Toot-it-forward
An app that requires some measure of courage - you enter a post and log in, which automatically posts the previous users post. Your post gets posted by whoever the next person to log in is. Please don’t be rude or I will have to turn it off.
6. Mastodon.py in the browser
Silly for slightly different reasons than most of the other entries in this list, I recently found out that you can just run Python in the browser now. Like, client side. Which makes one page application Mastodon clients written in Python theoretically feasible - I’ve tried and it mostly works fine! Though, maybe still go for masto.js over this for most things you want people to actually use. But if you have some small silly thing, and want to put it online, well, it works.
7. Etc.
There’s a list of more or less functional Mastodon apps I’ve made on https://mastolab.kal-tsit.halcy.de/, including the ones listed here and a few more, such as Trunkshow, a client that creates a slideshow from a tag, or Tootmage, a multicolumn client for your terminal, and a few other more or less useful ones. Have a look around, and of course, source code is available for your perusal.
Bonus 1: Not exactly a Mastodon app, but…
Dream Machine is a little drum sequencer toy that I made that cleanly embeds into Mastodon timelines for easy sharing (used to work well with both the regular and advanced / multicolumn interfaces, now it only really works with the basic interface).
Bonus 2: Other peoples silly Mastodon apps
I don’t have a monopoly on silly and/or sick as hell Mastodon apps. There are quite a apps for extremely old computers or operating systems listed on the actual apps page for Mastodon under the “Retro computing” category, here’s two more that aren’t there that I think are really cool:
A 3DS Miiverse client by @760ceb3b9c0ba4872cadf3ce35a7a4@wetdry.world:
Nicely complimenting the SMS and Phone app above, a Fax based client by @LaForge@chaos.social:
Would you like to know more?
If you want to make a silly (or very serious high gravitas) app for Mastodon now, you should! There’s many great libraries available, not only for Python but practically for any language you could want. And unlike on corporate social media websites, you don’t have to ask for permission and submit your phone number, ID document and DNA sample of your firstborn child to be granted access with a 10 API calls per month ratelimit - you can just go and make stuff, the only limit is your imagination (and the limits of what is ethical and safe. please don’t build another full text search engine that tries to slurp up all the data while ignoring user consent. we’ve been through this. several times.). Go and do your part! It’s a lot of fun!
If you would instead like to gently encourage me to make these types of things more (or to recharge the Twilio account for Hello MoToot, after going through their entire “prove you exist” process), I have a ko-fi, and if you want to do neither of these things, but do have a few bucks to spare, maybe check out the #mutualaid tag on your instance - who knows, someone who then isn’t struggling to make rent anymore might just find the spoons to create the funniest thing you’ve seen all week~
And finally, like, subscribe and please feel free to comment with any other fun, slightly out of the ordinary apps you know about!
| tagged: | mastodon python |
| filed under: | you won't believe number 4 |