Whalebird (Mastodon client)
A simple desktop app for Mastodon and (most) compatible Fediverse servers. Iâve used it with GoToSocial, Pixelfed, Sharkey (see note) and Akkoma, but canât get it to log into Snac. (I can also log into a Friendica server, but I havenât done enough with my account to get a sense of how well it works with it.) It works easily with multiple accounts on the same or different servers, and just sets up a narrow sidebar with icons for each account youâre signed into. Itâs also easy to switch between timelines, notifications, lists, etc. because thatâs also a narrow sidebar.
Itâs better suited for following mostly text than photos, only showing thumbnails in the timeline, but it does zoom in on images when you click on them.
One nice thing: When youâre viewing a timeline, thereâs a drop-down menu with toggles to turn boosts and replies on and off as needed!
The biggest downside is that it doesnât support editing posts, at least not yet.
Itâs a bit of a memory hog for what it does (it is an Electron app after all). If Iâm going to load a whole web engine, Iâd rather just install my instanceâs website, or Elk or Phanpy, as a PWA and get more functionality. Again, on low spec hardware like the PineTab 2, it seems like itâs just a little bit faster than running either of those apps in Falkon (which is the fastest app-capable browser Iâve used on that machine).
Since itâs built on Electron, it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, but doesnât feel like a native app on any of them. It is available in the Microsoft and macOS app stores.
Tips and Tricks
Donât use the Flatpak on Linux. Itâs still available on Flathub, but itâs way out of date since Whalebirdâs Flatpak maintainer had to leave. The RPM works fine on Fedora, you just have to update manually. There are also Debian and AUR packages for x86_64, and a standard tarball for both x86_64 and arm64. (I tried to build the AUR package on Arch/ARM, but couldnât get the right Electron dependencies installed.)
Signing into Sharkey was a little tricky because the website form doesnât show you the auth code and the browser doesnât seem to be able to send it to the app (though it wants to). On a hunch, I copied the code from the URL after granting permissions, pasted it into Whalebirdâs form, and it worked!
https://calckey.world/auth/RANDOM_LOOKING_CODE?mastodon=true&redirect_uri=urn%3Aietf%3Awg%3Aoauth%3A2.0%3Aoob
Posting photos threw me for a bit of a loop when I didnât see a button to return to my draft after adding alt text. After clicking âApplyâ on the description, you just click outside of the box containing the photo, same as when youâre viewing one that someone else has posted.
Lists work on at least Mastodon and Akkoma, but not on GoToSocial at the moment.