The State of Formatting on Mastodon
This is a breakdown of the current status / usability / display quality of Markdown formatted posts (from Glitch ) on various desktop and Fediverse apps connected to Vanilla Mastodon instances.
Background
Fediverse supports formatting through HTML and Markdown. Vanilla Mastodon will, to some extent, display incoming formatted posts. This post is about what formatting is available and how well it works across different apps. You can't make a formatted post from Mastodon near as I can tell. Glitch and other Mastodon forks support authoring of Markdown posts. As far as I know, Friendica, Hubzilla, Misskey (and its forks), and basically the bulk of the rest of the Fediverse supports authoring in Markdown and/or HTML.
Near as I can tell, Mastodon is the holdout. However, it also appears to account for one of the largest blocks of users in the Activity Pub universe.
Main information
Most apps I've tested will display some degree of Markdown formatted posts. That means bold, italics, links, and headings. Final presentation varies wildly but basically functions.
Example code:
## Creating a formatted post
**This** is a *formatted* post.
Outcome:
A simple list (bulleted or numbered) displays pretty well in most apps I've tested (even if it's not quite right in some). Complex / multi-level / nested lists are wildly off in a few too many apps. I recommend against using those.
While pre-formatted text and codeblocks are supported in most apps I tested, they have text that is formatted only marginally different from the default for that app which makes them hard to distinguish from surrounding text. This holds true for the “Desktop” (aka website interface) for Mastodon using any of the themes that come with the Mastodon platform. Confirmed on v4.3.1 Vanilla. (Glitch works fine for both codeblocks and preformatted text).
Blockquotes work well for display on Mastodon v4.3.1 Vanilla but they break up a bit in the Ice Cubes app.
| App | Example |
|---|---|
| Vanilla |  |
| Glitch |  |
| Fedistar |  |
| Tokodon |  |
| IceCubes |  |
Why should you care?
Out of the platforms on the Fediverse, Mastodon tends to get the most attention. Because of that, its limitations affect the rest of us. That's kind of wild when you consider the variety of things that can use the Activity Pub format. For example, this blog is a Fediverse native. You can subscribe to it from Mastodon or from other platforms on the Fediverse. (This isn't a call-to-action. The fact that WriteFreely posts to Fediverse is kind of incidental to what I got it for.)
Think about how limiting it would be if this post was limited to 500 characters and couldn't have formatting because Mastodon wasn't going to behave particularly well with it.
On the other hand, if you're trying to make your messages look good to the widest variety of Fediverse participants, knowing how well Mastodon users will see posts that come out on the other end is useful. Things are in flux. At least once a month, I conduct a test or two trying to discern whether things have improved since last time I tested.
This is the most thorough version I've done so far. I'm unlikely to do a new blog post every month about it.
Wouldn't having all this formatting be a little much in posts?
🤷♀️ Up to you if you'd rather not use the formatting. Mastodon is carrying on from a tradition started by Twitter. Twitter started with limitations that were a reflection of the first uses: people who were sending Tweets via text messages from their phones.
The limitations in length and formatting aren't based on an internet tradition. They're based on what amounted to a hack to get more people using the app back when smartphones were an expensive fad most people weren't using.
Not doing my big tech history thing here but formatted text has been a staple of internet conversations for a long time.
Apps
- IceCubes (Mac / iOS only) — Both on mobile and desktop. This has enough killer features that even with the formatting issues, it's my main client on Mac and iOS.
- Fedistar (Windows, Mac, and Linux) — Doesn't quite work right with filters and it would be nice if it allowed you to auto-expand CWs. However, it's really dang slick. Quickly becoming a favorite.
- Tokodon (Linux only, KDE specific) — This one's a little basic. Emoji don't really work. Custom emoji don't display at all and Unicode emoji don't display with the system's installed emoji font. That said, it is really great for a low-distraction interface. The wide, single-column interface also makes it great for reading long posts. I use it regularly.
Why didn't you try my favorite app?
Almost certainly because I couldn't get it to install or it didn't function correctly. I'm not going to name names but some install experiences are too painful to repeat.
In terms of other mobile apps, I'm really happy with the one I'm using. It's hard to get motivated to try something new when it offers so many options and features I haven't found anywhere else.
If your favorite mobile app is the official Mastodon app, I'd invite you to try some other options.
Why didn't you test any web apps other than Vanilla / Glitch?
Every time I get interested in one, I find it's no longer being developed or it only supports single-column mode. There's a place for single column. Tokodon is single column and I use it extensively. Ice Cubes is effectively single column but with shortcuts and features that make it more similar to a multi-column app. So, basically, I'm happy-ish with my existing single-column clients.
#Mastodon #Fediverse #Markdown #IceCubesApp #Fedistar #Tokodon