Mastodon 3.3.0 and official iOS app

Hi all, on December 27th, 2020 I released Mastodon 3.3.0, which you can read about here. Besides a number of bugfixes, the release adds another mod tool to the arsenal (IP blocks) and makes a different mod tool less prone to mistakes (suspending an account no longer irrecoverably deletes data immediately, and can now be undone safely). And for those who follow accounts that post rarely and you don't want to miss, you can now choose to be notified when they post (as opposed to only passively receiving their posts in the home feed, where they are easily overshadowed!)

On February 5th, I announced the development of an official iOS app for Mastodon, with my reasoning laid out here. To summarize, I believe that there is a significant gap in Mastodon's app ecosystem when it comes to apps that focus on introducing new users to the network. I have teamed up with UX designers from NYC agency Lickability (who worked on the iOS app for Meetup.com) and software developers from Sujitech (who worked on the app Twidere) for this. We have been working on it for a month now and I am very impressed with our progress.

I don't like to "toot my own horn" but I genuinely believe there is no other Mastodon app right now that has put so much thought and care into onboarding new users, and so much polish into the design. Not to mention that we have Dopatwo, the official artist of all Mastodon art, creating new illustrations for us. (Speaking of new illustrations, I hope you have seen the (relatively) new Patreon tier thumbnails!). Of course, this undertaking is not cheap. And that's considering we're working with a limited scope.

The first release of the app (which is still a few months away, I'd say -- the goal is to finish it before summer starts) will be an MVP (minimum viable product). I have personally devised a roadmap of features that are absolutely core to the Mastodon experience and must be in from day one, and other features that will have to be added later. The way I see it, we are playing catch up right now, and every moment that we don't have a functioning official app is losing us potential users. So getting it out there on the App Store to begin assembling a user base and reviews as soon as possible is the primary objective.

With the Samsung NEXT grant on Open Collective from 2019 having all but run out towards supporting other Mastodon contributors, designers, translators and so on, what was previously a quite generous Patreon wage for a single developer is now getting stretched thin. So after years of keeping the "goal" on this page at the same level I have now added a new goal, calculated from the costs of this project amortized over its projected runtime.

Right now I am considering how to best share the progress on the official app development without showing too much and ruining the surprise. Maybe it's time for patrons-only posts!