5 min read Apps

5 Best Mastodon Apps for iPhone

Mastodon app open on iPhone on a table

Since the acquisition of Twitter, the service has gone through a big overhaul. While you may agree with its new direction, most iPhone users would agree that the killing of support for third-party apps was not a good decision. Thanks to questionable decisions like these, hundreds of thousands of users have migrated to Mastodon, which is a decentralized version of Twitter. It has seen a rise in popularity, and new users are looking for cool Mastodon apps to access the service on their iPhones. To make your task easier, we have tested all the major Mastodon apps, and come up with this list of the best Mastodon apps for iPhone in 2023.

Best Mastodon apps for iPhone to use in 2023

Since Twitter killed its API that allowed third-party app developers to create awesome Twitter clients, these developers have moved towards creating amazing apps for Mastodon. While it’s still in the early stages, there are already several cool Mastodon apps for iPhone that you can use to access the service. But before you check out the list, don’t forget to follow us on Mastodon to get notified whenever we publish a new article.

1. Mastodon official app

We start off our list with the official Mastodon app. Like the official Twitter app, the Mastodon app is an excellent free app that will suit the needs of most Mastodon users. The app offers features like dark mode, support for Mastodon polls, real-time notifications, support for editing posts, and more. Where the official app fails is in the polished user interface and support for power-user features like advanced views. Another drawback of this app is that it doesn’t offer many customization options. However, if you want an app that lets you toot your posts and check your feed, you can use it for free.

Mastodon official app

Install: Mastodon official app

2. Ice Cubes

One of our favorite Mastodon apps for iPhone is Ice Cubes. It is an open-source and free Mastodon client for iPhone and iPad that’s built entirely on SwiftUI. That means the app feels native to iOS, is lightweight, super-fast, and a joy to use. Ice Cubes for Mastodon lets you see your local and federated timelines, log in and manage multiple accounts, quickly switch between accounts, replay, edit, delete, repost, and quote tweets, and more.

Ice Cubes

What makes the Ice Cubes shine is its customizability. You can use its display settings to change the theme color (there are 10 themes available) and the app icon, make the font bigger or smaller, set the avatar position, replace the action buttons, and more. We also love that the app shows you the stats for your Mastodon instance, lets you change content view guidelines, and does so much more.

If you are looking for a free yet power-packed Mastodon app for your iOS device, this is the app you should install.

Install: Ice Cubes

3. Ivory by Tapbots

Tapbots is the company behind the famed Twitter client Tweetbot. Now that its Twitter client is dead, the company is focusing on its Mastodon app. Dubbed Ivory, the app has the most fluid user interface of all the apps we have tried. Its fluid animations, haptic feedback in the right places, and use of audio cues all through the interface make the app a joy to use.

Ivory by Tapbots

The app feature set includes support for multiple accounts, easy switching between accounts, inline post action buttons, the ability to edit your profile, support for approving follow requests from private accounts, a toot editing button, and more. Ivory is still in active development, and you can see the list of upcoming features on the developer’s website.

The app is free to install and use in read-only mode, and you can pay $1.99/month (or $14.99/year) to access its features.

Install: Ivory by Tapbots

4. Tusker

Tusker is another excellent free Mastodon client for iPhone. While the app is not the prettiest on this list, it has all the basic features and then some. You can add multiple accounts and easily switch between them, change the UI to dark mode, customize the accent color, and more. The best feature of the app is that it lets you create your own views. Apart from the default Home, Local, and Federated views, you can create customized views using hashtags and other Mastodon instances.

Tusker

We love the toot button in the middle that lets us create quick posts and the search button that lets us see what’s trending on the Mastodon. The biggest drawback of this app is that we couldn’t find a way to reduce the font size. In fact, there are very few customization options available for the user interface, which might be a deal breaker for power users.

Install: Tusker

5. Metatext

Metatext is the Mastodon client that feels closest to a Twitter app. If you recently switched from Twitter and are craving a similar experience, this is the app to get. Similar to Twitter, the app shows you your feed, explore, notifications, and messages buttons from left to right and a floating compose button on the timeline.

Metatext

You can easily switch between the home, local, and federated feeds using the buttons at the top. You can add multiple accounts, view favorites and bookmarks toots, switch to dark mode, change the app icon, change notification preferences, and more. While you cannot customize the UI much, you will be happy with all the features you are getting with this app.

Install: Metatext

Other Mastodon clients for iPhone to keep an eye on

The Mastodon iPhone app ecosystem is still in its nascent stage, and there are several other apps in active development that you can check out. Here are some of our favorites to keep an eye on:

  • Mammoth: The app is still in beta, and you can test drive it using the TestFlight app on your iPhone. It seems promising, and we cannot wait to see what features developers will release in the future.
  • Toot! for Mastodon: Toot! for Mastodon is a paid Mastodon client ($3.99) featuring a beautiful user interface, fast and robust service, a beautiful timeline, and more.
  • Re: Toot: It is a Mastodon client for iPhone that offers a good user interface and an excellent set of features. The app is free to download, and you can buy the $2.99 premium version to unlock all its features.

Top Mastodon apps for iPhone

We hope that the guide was able to find you the best iPhone Mastodon client for you. If you want something basic, you should go for the official app. Ice Cubes app is the best option for power users who want the most features. If you want the best experience, Ivory by Tapbots will be better, but it’s also the costliest app, so you have to decide for yourself. Let us know which app you chose in the comments below.