It is almost 2025. I’ve decided to dip my toes back into social media. I’ve been the occasional lurker on Reddit and LinkedIn but not a regular poster. With the growth of Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky, I figured, “Why not give it another try?”.

I started looking for a client that aggregates these three platforms, and it didn’t take long to find openvibe.social. Released earlier in 2024, it is still new and shiny. Who doesn’t like new and shiny apps?

Quick Take

Installation and Setup

Installing from the App Store, I launched the app and added my Mastodon and Bluesky accounts in seconds. I had a hiccup adding my Threads accounts due to an OAuth issue. This seems to be a known problem, and after retrying about a week later, it just worked. Your mileage may still vary, so here’s Openvibe’s support article on the Threads integration issue.

Viewing

Using the app, I appreciate that it defaults to a Following feed without adding some algorithm suggestions. It’s a quieter feed that I can scan in a few minutes. If, however, I want what’s Trending or “Discover” posts based on what some algorithm thinks I’d like, I can switch over to those filters, as well.

The app does an excellent job of showing which social media provider the post comes from in the feed. For example:

Posting

To post, click the + button on the bottom right. It will bring up a create screen. It defaults to cross-posting to all linked social media accounts, but you can quickly adjust to any combination of linked social accounts.

Search

Search is what one would expect. One can search across all or a specific network against profiles or posts. Results return quickly. No complaints.

Notifications

Notifications include Comments & Mentions, Follows, and Reposts & Quotes. I don’t have much activity data here as a historic lurker, but my three followers show up. 😁

My Take

That’s my quick take for now. I like what I see. The feed is clean and easy to view, and no major technical glitches have surfaced. I would like the app to sync between my various devices (iPhone, iPad, macOS). Right now, you have to set up independently on each device. That isn’t ideal for account setup and feed read history.

As a user for one week, the proof will be if I still use Openvibe three months from now. Stay tuned.