Something I’ve been wanting to know and couldn’t find an answer in micro.blog’s documentation: why isn’t there Android apps for it? I’m trying to make some friends to come over, but many of them are on Google’s platform and complain they can’t find mobile apps.
@frederico There is one Android app called Dialog that is still in development. The basic reason there aren’t Android apps available is that not many have picked up the ball to develop the app.
@frankm good to know. Maybe the strong connection between Android and the open source community plays a part here. I remember talking about micro.blog with some acquaintances from that crowd and the overall reaction has been “I prefer Mastodon”, “it doesn’t offer anything different than Masto” and so on. You see, people who are otherwise very much concerned about these matters are so biased that they fail to realize that, as nice as it is, Mastodon is still a closed silo!
@frederico My simple observation is that the majority of micro blog users are also Apple users, MacOS and iOS. Consequently, there has not been much energy with Android and @manton can only do so much himself. I believe Dialog will soon be updated with the ability to post to micro.blog, which is its main limiting feature. I am not aware of any other Android apps in active development.
@manton I just upgraded to the new Dialog version. I can post new messages with it now, not just reply to postings by others. Now I can read & post with Android on my phone, with Chrome on Chromebook or PC & with iOS on iPod Touch. 😍🌹🎇 Second class citizen no longer!! 🆕🎉 HNY
@manton Thanks. I just updated. The post button is buried under the profile, which is an odd location.
@frankm glad you mentioned where the post button was on Dialog or I am not sure I would have found it
@manton That's great to know. I'll tell my friends and see if they decide to come over. By the way, Manton, the documentation is great, but I find some people still have a hard time figuring out how to set this all up - as most of them don't want to go right at the start for the paid Micro.blog hosting. So maybe something like a trial period would be a good idea. Then afterwards they could switch to a WordPress hosting or upgrade the Micro.blog hosting itself.
@frankm yes, but you realize this creates sort of a chicken and egg situation, don't you? They get the feeling that Micro.blog doesn't support Android adequately, and then they don't use it. As a consequence, it doesn't make much sense to develop for it. On top of that, Android people start feeling like Micro.blog is sort of an Apple thing and then don't see it as something interesting for them. I think a nice mobile app would go a long way in breaking this vicious circle.
@frederico Thanks! There is a 10-day trial, which for the holidays we've updated to 3 months if you invite someone. We are extending that giveaway to run through this weekend.
@frederico For info and help, as well as the official source (@help) there are also efforts by members of the community. For example, the wiki, as well as my own effort: @til, which is also on Twitter where I posted a quick intro to help people get started. There's plenty going on, and we're all continuing to make more information and make it easier to find but this is still the early stages for the platform so things don't appear to be as easy; this is different in that fundamental way so people need to also embrace change, at least in the short term so they can get a full and accurate idea of how things work.
As for an official Android app, that is simply an unfortunate reality of Micro.blog being as independent as it is; other people have called strongly for Manton to do what is needed for this but he can't make money magically appear and then use it to hire an Android developer, nor can he suddenly learn enough for Android development himself. Hopefully it won't be too long before he can hire a developer -- and I mean in a sustainable way, since there is no point risking the entire company for this -- and then there will be an official app to go along with Dialog, Gluon, and any other efforts by third-party developers.
@manton wow, that’s great to know. I’ll invite some friends, for sure. Just one question: if in the end they decide to switch to a WordPress-hosted micro.blog, is it complicated to migrate the posts already published?
@frederico They can export all their posts in WordPress format. Should be pretty easy to migrate.
@frederico I've done the migration from Micro.blog to Wordpress. It was very easy and smooth. The only thing, once I migrated to Wordpress I started missing how easy it was to post on a MB hosted blog, so now I have both.
@bradenslen thanks for the info. Yeah, I’d love to have both too, but 5 USD/month is a lot when converted to my currency.
@manton great to know. I’ll invite my friends and help them with the transition if they give up on the hosted one.
@frederico I understand. The important thing is that your friends can migrate pretty easily between Micro.blog and Wordpress.
@simonwoods thank you for all the info. I’ll check those links. I really think micro.blog is sort of a game changer in terms of social media.
@manton, I don't know if this is the best place and way to ask, but here it goes: does the $2/month plan allow me to do the Mastodon thing? I read the FAQ but this is not explicitly said anywhere, as far as I could find.
@frederico No, it’s built around custom domain names hosted on Micro.blog, so it only works with sites hosted here. We’ll have to improve the help. Thanks!
@frederico It definitely could be, yep! Manton has often spoken about how he thinks the future is a large collection of smaller networks, to balance out the monopoly of the current set of big networks.
There is plenty more help to be found in the official documentation and the developer of Dialog has a new Slack channel in the official Micro.blog Slack group.
@manton Hi Manton... Please check this message, I really need your help. sergiosantosjacinto.micro.blog/2019/01/0...
@manton Please check this message, I really need your help. sergiosantosjacinto.micro.blog/2019/01/0...
@simonwoods I’ll check it. I know it’s ridiculous, but I entered the micro.blog Slack, but have not yet wrapped my head around it (around Slack, I mean)
@sergiosantosjacinto There's more information at jsonfeed.org. I don't think RSSOwl supports it yet.
@frederico Slack can be... a lot. At the very least the Micro.blog group can makes for insightful reading, especially for helpful info.
