Exploring decentralized chat and microblogging platforms

Conclusions

Each of the three decentralized chat and microblogging platforms fulfills its purpose and offers a feature set that is very much on par with top dogs like Twitter. (See Table 1 for a summary of important features.) The user interfaces take a little getting used to, but thanks to their self-explanatory design, they require very little training. The decentralized approach gives users control over their data with all services, guaranteeing an essential level of security through various security functions. Setting up a separate server instance requires some manual work. Closed groups on your own instance mean that admins in smaller companies can set up internal communication platforms without security worries.

Table 1

Decentralized Social Media Networks

 

Diaspora

Friendica

Mastodon

License

AGPL

AGPL

AGPL

Functions

Registration with an email address

Yes

Yes

Yes

NSFW option

Yes

No

Restricted

2FA supported

Yes

Yes

Yes

Own server supported

Yes

Yes

Yes

Close groups supported

Yes

Yes

Yes

Profile transfer

Yes

Yes

Yes

Infos

  1. ActivityPub: https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/
  2. Diaspora: https://diasporafoundation.org
  3. Friendica: https://friendi.ca
  4. Friendica installation: https://friendi.ca/resources/installation/
  5. Mastodon: https://joinmastodon.org
  6. Mastodon documentation: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/run-your-own/

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