Comparison of microblogging and similar services

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The tables below compare general and technical information for some notable active microblogging services, and also social network services that have status updates.

Contents

General information

ServiceOwnerLaunchedPrimary serviceSoftware licenseContent licenseMultilingualAd-free
Bluesky Open source2021-10-21 social network MIT own TOS19Yes
Diaspora Open source2010-11 social network AGPLv3-or-later [1] AGPLv3 31 [2] Yes
Facebook Meta [3] 2004-02-04 social network Proprietary own TOS112No
Friendica Open source2010-07 social network AGPLv3-or-laterown TOSYesYes
GNU social Open source2010-03-03 microblogging AGPLv3-or-later [4] CC BY 3.070 [5] Yes
identi.ca Open source2008-07-02 [6] microblogging Apache v2 (pump.io) CC BY 3.0YesYes
Mastodon Open source2016-10 [7] microblogging AGPLv3-or-later [8] own TOS93 [9] Yes
Micro.blog Riverfold Software2017-04-24 microblogging Mixed [10] [11] MixedYesYes
Movim Open source2011-03 social network AGPLv3-or-later [12] [13] AGPLv3 59 [14] Yes
Steam communityValve Corporation2003-09-12 Proprietary own TOS28 [15] Yes
Threads Meta 2023-07-05 microblogging Proprietary own TOS31Yes
Tout Tout 2010-04 [16] microblogging Proprietary own TOSYesYes
Tumblr Automattic 2007 microblogging Proprietary own TOSYesNo
Twister Open source2013-12-30 microblogging MIT & BSD own TOS2:en,ruYes
Weibo Sina Corporation 2009-08 microblogging Proprietary own TOSYesNo
Viva Engage Yammer, Inc.2008-09 [17] microblogging Proprietary own TOSYesYes
X (Twitter) X Corp. [18] 2006-08 microblogging Proprietary own TOSYesNo

Features

An overview of integral features. Extras may be provided by third party applications/services, but are not listed here.

Service Tagging [Note 1] GroupsConversation [Note 2] Private [Note 3] Private following list RSS Atom Bookmarklet
Facebook YesYesYesYes ?No [19] NoNo
Friendica YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes [20]
GNU social YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes [21]
Mastodon YesNoYesYesYesYesYesYes [22]
Micro.blog YesNoYesNo ?YesNoNo
Movim YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
Steam communityYesYesYesYesYes ? ? ?
Tumblr YesNoNoYesYesYesNoYes [23] [24]
Weibo YesYesYesYesYesNoNoNo
X (Twitter) YesYesYesYesYesNo [25] No [25] Yes [26]
  1. Tagging in micro-blogging services is often done with hashtags.
  2. The ability to see whole conversation (multiple replies) on one flat page.
  3. If this service has the ability to hide posts from the general public.

Posting and reading

Communication methods supported by the services. Extras may be provided by third party applications/services, but are not listed here.

ServicePost viaRead via
Web XMPP Email SMS API Micropub Web XMPP Email SMS API Feed ActivityPub
Facebook YesNoYes [27] YesYesNoYesNoYes [28] YesYesNoNo
Friendica YesNoNoNoYesNoYesNoNoNoYesYesYes
GNU social YesYesYesYesYesNoYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
Mastodon YesNoNoNoYesNoYesNoNoNoYesYesYes
Micro.blog YesYesNoNoYesYesYesYesYes [29] NoYesYesYes
Movim YesYesNoNoYes ?YesYesNoNoYesYesNo
X (Twitter) YesNoNoYesYesNoYesNoNoYesYesYesNo

See also

Related Research Articles

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identi.ca Open source social networking and micro-blogging service

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OpenMicroBlogging is a deprecated communication protocol that allows different microblogging services to interoperate with each other. It lets the user of one service subscribe to statuses from a user of another service. This enables the creation of a federation of new communities, as an individual or organization of any size can host a service that supports the protocol. OpenMicroBlogging utilizes the OAuth and Yadis protocols and does not depend on any central authority.

Qaiku was a micro-blogging and lifestreaming service comparable to Twitter and Jaiku. It allowed users to post short text or picture messages that other users can then post comments on. In comparison to Twitter and Jaiku, Qaiku had a multilingual focus, with all messages marked and searchable based on their language. It was shut down on October 15, 2012.

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pump.io Decentralized social network and protocol

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mastodon (social network)</span> Open source, self-hosted, social media service

Mastodon is an open source, self-hosted, social networking service. Mastodon uses the ActivityPub protocol for federation which allows users to communicate between independent Mastodon instances and other ActivityPub compatible services. Mastodon has microblogging features similar to Twitter, and is generally considered to be a part of the Fediverse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fediverse</span> Network of federated social media platforms

The Fediverse is a collection of social networking services that can communicate with each other using a common protocol. Users of different websites can send and receive status updates, multimedia files and other data across the network. The term Fediverse is a portmanteau of "federation" and "universe".

Micro.blog is a microblogging and social networking service created by Manton Reece. It is the first large multi-user social media service to support the Webmention and Micropub standards published by the World Wide Web Consortium, and is part of the Fediverse, supporting ActivityPub.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ActivityPub</span> Decentralized social networking protocol

ActivityPub is a protocol and open standard for decentralized social networking. It provides a client-to-server (C2S) API for creating and modifying content, as well as a federated server-to-server (S2S) protocol for delivering notifications and content to other servers. ActivityPub has become the main standard used in the fediverse, a popular network used for social networking that consists of software such as Mastodon, Pixelfed and PeerTube.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pixelfed</span> Open source photo-sharing platform

Pixelfed is a free and open-source image sharing social network service. The platform uses a decentralized architecture which is roughly comparable to e-mail providers, meaning user data is not stored on one central server. It uses the ActivityPub protocol, allowing users to interact with other social networks within the protocol, such as Mastodon, PeerTube, and Friendica. Pixelfed and other platforms utilizing this protocol are considered to be part of the Fediverse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Misskey</span> Open source, federated, social networking service

Misskey is an open source, federated, social networking service created in 2014 by Japanese software engineer Eiji "syuilo" Shinoda. Misskey uses the ActivityPub protocol for federation, allowing users to interact between independent Misskey instances, and other ActivityPub compatible platforms. Misskey is generally considered to be part of the Fediverse.

References

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