With Twitter going through some turbulent changes following the company's acquisition by Elon Musk, many have been looking to switch to other social media alternatives. While some have switched to the likes of Instagram, Facebook, and even Tumblr, one that has arguably taken off the most has been Mastodon. It looks like Twitter, but it's very different under the hood.

If that sounds appealing, or if you're just looking to swap over, then here's a brief guide for you.

What is Mastodon?

For the unfamiliar, Mastodon is a unique, decentralized social network. Anyone can run their own Mastodon instance thanks to the open-source nature of the project, and people register on any of the instances available. It's a form of federated computing where different servers are all interconnected with each other. Additionally, users can interact with the wider Mastodon universe and interact with people that are just on their own Mastodon instance.

For example, I registered on Irish Mastodon, and I can interact with other Irish users if I want to, and I can easily look through a feed of just those users. However, if I want to interact with the wider world, there's nothing stopping me from doing that either.

Mastodon has been around for about six years now, and in that time, it has grown and improved leaps and bounds above what it once was. There is no one way to use it. Anybody can host their own Mastodon instance and connect it to the rest of the "fediverse," or you can entirely segregate it if you'd like.

In the above graph, red, blue, orange, and black each represent separate Mastodon instances. Black does not connect to the other instances, whereas orange, blue, and red are interconnected and can talk to each other. For example, your country may have a local country-wide instance that you can register for, but that doesn't mean you can't talk to a friend who is using another instance.

A good way to think about it is like email. You can register with Google's Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, or even host your own, but they can all still interact with each other. You just need to find a place to set up first.

In terms of how to use it, it's similar to Twitter. However, hashtags will be more important because there are no "trends" or "topics" like on Twitter. Also, your timeline is entirely chronological, so your posts (or "Toots" as they're called on Mastodon, though that's being phased out) won't be artificially bumped up someone's feed... unless someone boosts it, that is. Boosting is basically the same thing as retweeting.

How to register on Mastodon

Registering on Mastodon is easy, but finding the right instance or one you're actually interested in might be the hardest part. You can install the official Mastodon Android app to find a list of servers to check out or go to one of the publicly aggregated listings to see what's available.

Once you register, you'll either have to confirm your email address or wait for someone to approve your sign-up if the administrators have that enabled. Once they do that, though, you're in! Some servers are currently struggling with load, but you can just find one of the smaller communities to join and still interact with everyone normally.

How to find people to follow on Mastodon and how accounts work

Mastodon uses the following naming scheme for usernames:

@username@mastodoninstance.com

For example, my username is @AdamConway@mastodon.ie

It sounds complicated, but most of the time, you'll simply follow people by seeing others reacting with them or by browsing hashtags. If you want to get a head start on finding some of your old Twitter mutuals who may have already registered for Mastodon, be sure to check out Fedifinder. You link your Twitter to it, and it scans your existing following list on Twitter to find other people on the platform. It then gives you a CSV file to import into Mastodon to automatically follow everyone it picked up.

The only issue that will arise thanks to the decentralized nature of Mastodon is if you need to migrate your account elsewhere. You can do it, and in a much easier way than email, too. You simply export your data from settings, point your old account to your new account in settings, and reimport your following list on the new instance you move over to. Everything else, including your followers, will come with you automatically. You'll lose your old posts, but those will still be available on your older instance.

Why switch to Mastodon?

There are a few reasons somebody might switch to Mastodon, and not all of them are related to current affairs. Mastodon has actually been a growing and somewhat popular social media network for those in the technology industry, and that's thanks to its open-source, decentralized nature. It has a few quality-of-life features that Twitter doesn't have (for example, longer posts and more robust content warnings), and unlike Twitter, it vies for your attention a lot less.

That's not to say you should switch to Mastodon; we can't tell you what to do. However, there are rich and vibrant communities already sprouting up, which might lead you to make new connections you would never have on Twitter. There are third-party apps that work too, with my favorite Android app being Tusky.

If you're happy with Twitter, then keep using it! However, if you're looking for something new but similar to Twitter, Mastodon might be for you.