Pachli (Mastodon App)

★★★★☆

An actively-developed Mastodon app forked from Tusky.

Like the original, it’s capable and stable, not too simplified and not too cluttered. I’ve been trying it out for a few weeks, mainly out of curiosity, after years using Tusky. They’re still broadly similar, with mostly small differences in what’s emphasized and how. Pachli tries to release an update every month, while Tusky follows the more common “when it’s ready” release model. In some cases they’ve both added new features since the split, like hooking into server-side translations.

The biggest Pachli-specific feature I’ve found is more harassment filters that let you limit messages from unfamiliar accounts based on account age, interactions, etc. This is a cool idea, and I’d like to see something like it implemented at the server level as well.

Tusky recently polished the look of their app, and the differences are mostly subjective, but the new design displays block quotes a lot more legibly than Pachli does.

Overall, Tusky and Pachli are still similar enough that I don’t see any compelling reason to switch from one to the other. Both are more stable than Husky, more capable than the official Mastodon app, and more user-friendly than Fedilab or Subway Tooter, though neither has Fedilab’s support for additional features in non-Mastodon servers.