After founding and promoting the in style Mastodon consumer Mammoth, developer Shihab Mehboob is returning to compete with it with the launch of his new app, Saturn. To not be confused with the social calendar of the identical title, Mehboob’s Saturn works with the decentralized social community Mastodon and particularly affords a novel “Highlights” characteristic that summarizes your timeline and reveals in style content material.
Mehboob stresses that the app isn’t leveraging AI and even machine studying to perform this, noting that many within the Mastodon group are cautious of such expertise. As a substitute, he says that the Highlights characteristic is powered by a easy native checker that appears to see which posts and accounts from the person’s timeline are seeing the best likes and reposts and brings these ahead within the app. Nonetheless, the characteristic doesn’t essentially embody solely content material from accounts you observe, as a result of it additionally helps content material that was reposted into your feed.
On this approach, Saturn goals to handle critics’ complaints about utilizing the would-be Twitter/X various, Mastodon, the place it might probably typically be arduous to search out fascinating accounts to observe if you first be a part of.
Saturn additionally helps anticipated options like the flexibility to publish photos, movies, GIFs, polls, customized emoticons, drawings, spoiler textual content, and extra.
Not like X and Meta’s Threads, which depend on algorithms to curate content material for the person person, Saturn guarantees chronological timelines solely.
Much like different third-party Mastodon apps, like Ivory, you possibly can configure Saturn’s backside navigation bar to incorporate fast entry to issues like in style posts, the newest information, prompt accounts, communities, and trending tags. You might be additionally in a position to simply entry your feed, the firehose out of your Mastodon server, group posts, and lists, in addition to your bookmarks and profile from the in-app nav bar.
As well as, the app gained’t embody adverts because it as a substitute depends on premium subscriptions to maintain itself. For $12.99 per 12 months (or $39.99 as a one-time buy), Saturn’s subscription affords entry to the good highlights discovery characteristic, and different choices, together with a lurker mode for shopping timelines safely with out by accident liking one thing (Instagram, TAKE NOTE!), a pace dial for messaging your common contacts, assist for limitless accounts, push notifications, customized themes and icons, social sharing, shortcuts, widgets, and extra.
With a give attention to iOS 18, Saturn additionally helps Apple’s App Intents (for Shortcuts), Management Heart Widgets, Translations, Pencil gestures, and Stay Actions for the Apple Watch. (The Watch app is included with the app obtain.)
Mehboob says he was in a position to launch Saturn because it has been greater than a 12 months for the reason that sale of Mammoth, which is now backed by Mozilla, Lengthy Journey Ventures, and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff.
“I discover that the largest draw with Saturn is its lovely interface, customization, smoothness, and the flexibility so as to add in new OS-specific options quick,” Mehboob says. “It seems and feels proper at residence on iOS,” he provides.
The app is a free obtain and affords in-app purchases.