Mastodon, Bluesky, Nostr, Threads: Since Elon Musk acquired X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022, the use of X alternatives has steadily increased as people embrace decentralized social networking. Unfortunately, keeping up with all the new networks hasn’t been easy, as they currently rely on different protocols that don’t interoperate. That’s a problem that a new app called Openvibe aims to solve. Openvibe lets you stay connected with your friends and followers from Mastodon, Nostr, Bluesky, and soon Threads in a single interface, with a unified timeline. It also gives you the ability to cross-post to multiple networks simultaneously.
According to CEO Matej Svancer, the company's mission is to provide a friendly, “easy-to-use gateway” to the open social web for new users.
The team, based in the Czech Republic, originally started working on a Twitter client called Tweetoshi in 2022, but shifted their focus to the open social web after Elon Musk acquired Twitter, as many of the early adopters of the app switched. Previous work included working on the Nostr-based app Plebstr, which has now been merged into Openvibe.
But the company's users complained that there were too many open social protocols to choose from and that they couldn't communicate with each other across the network.
“We’ve been through this ourselves, and Openvibe is the answer,” Svancer said. “There are a few existing bridges, but they require additional servers, mirror accounts, opt-ins, etc. I don’t think that’s ideal. With Openvibe, there’s none of that, you can connect your existing accounts. The goal of Openvibe is to lower the barrier to entry for newcomers to the space. I believe that the open social space can challenge traditional social media, but only if we come together.”
This product addresses the growing demand from users for tools that help them keep up in an increasingly fragmented social web. A number of startups and projects are challenging the tech giants. In addition to the open source project Mastodon, a decentralized open social network powered by the ActivityPub protocol, there is also Bluesky, which currently has 6 million users and is built on the latest AT protocol, and Nostr, a decentralized social protocol currently favored by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.
Smaller startups, including Spoutible and Spill, have tried to take on Twitter/X, but early attempts like Post and T2/Pebble have already failed. Still, the space continues to heat up, most recently with the launch of noplace, a Twitter and MySpace mashup aimed at Gen Z.
Meanwhile, Meta, which has figured out the direction of the social web, has introduced ActivityPub to its latest social network Threads.
But the glut of choice has led to the emergence of new aggregation tools that combine news sources like RSS feeds with social feeds. The Iconfactory, former developer of Twitter client Twitterific, is currently working on an app called Tapestry to help people keep up with the fray, while Silvio Rizzi, developer of newsreader app Reeder, is working on a Reeder replacement that includes social sources.
Ahead of these potential competitors is Openvibe, a simple aggregator for the open social web.
To use the app, you must log in to an existing account on a supported network. You will then immediately follow all your friends in a unified timeline. The app also features an integrated trends section and cross-posting support.
The app's Mastodon integration allows you to follow federated Threads profiles, but now that the Threads API is available, Svancer plans to add broader support for Threads in the future, starting with cross-posting.
A version of Openvibe was already in development, but Svancer has not promoted its release until now, as the latest release adds Bluesky support.
The four-person team includes Svancer, two developers, and a designer. The pre-seed stage startup is supported by angel investors and Wolf, a NYC accelerator that Openvibe attended last year.
Openvibe is available as a free app on iOS and Android, but plans to experiment with a desktop version. The app will eventually introduce a subscription plan to generate revenue.
