Jussi Pekonen

Year one on App.net

Posted on Thursday August 22, 2013

On August 22, 2012, exactly one year ago, I joined a network for social apps called App.net. And what a year it has been. Oh boy.

We have seen both curious and suspicious reviews about the sustainability of the business model of the network[1], steady growth interleaved with few spikes induced by special events, new network features, and a lot of great apps for different platforms. But there is one particular reason that differentiates App.net from other social media networks: Its users.

For me, joining a network where I knew nobody was really exciting. None of my friends or colleagues were on App.net, so I jumped in without expectations. And that turned out to be a really great decision. At first, I was the one who looked for interesting discussions to jump in[2] but it didn’t take long before people wanted to contribute to discussions started by me. As an Internet-nobody, I found that really interesting.

The discussions ongoing on App.net can be interpreted to be the soul of the network. The people taking part in the thread do not mind if a total stranger butts in and shares her/his opinion/view. And thanks to the 256 characters long posts they carry more meaningful messages than the puns squeezed to 140 characters found on Twitter.

As a side product of those discussions I have had I have met a lot of awesome people. That has made App.net feel like a second living room where I find both entertainment[3] and serious discussion company. If I would want to mention each and every one of these great people, this blog post would easily be gazillion words. Well, not really, but almost.

In addition to the users, the network is full of awesome developers who have made a bunch of great apps for various platforms. They are all innovative and really responsive if you ever face a problem with their apps. And they are working in close collaboration with the App.net developers to improve the network. That, in my opinion, makes App.net even better network.

Should I mention the apps I have used? Well, umm, I can’t remember them all by heart. At the moment I have 23 App.net apps installed on my iPhone, some of which are partially broken at the moment, unfortunately. I have also used a few web apps. Heck, I have even used at least three different apps on my employer-sanctioned Android phone. All of them have been great and I have been happy to be able to play with them.

Nevertheless, I would like to mention some pretty great apps I have loved a lot during this year. First of all, the first native app I used, Dash[4] has a special place in my heart. In addition, Rivr deserves a mention for being the first iOS app that I used. Unfortunately it is one of the partially broken apps. Both of these apps use the web service bli.ms to provide a short link to uploaded images. Last, but definitely not least, I would like to shout out Felix, my current daily driver that gets updated almost instantly after a new API feature is launched.

I have had wonderful time during my first year on App.net. I hope I will have the same experience also in the future. Let’s keep chatting!

If you want to leave a comment, ping me on ADN. I promise to reply. If I don’t reply immediately, I’m probably sleeping. Or being busy replying back to other comments.


  1. Yes, App.net is a network, not a service. It provides the backbone, that is, network, for different kind of services on top of which different apps can be build.  ↩

  2. Actually joining existing conversations is encouraged on App.net.  ↩

  3. Just check this post.  ↩

  4. Formerly known as Hooha formerly known as Jive. By the way, Dash asks “What’s your Jive?” when you compose a new post.  ↩

Tags: Social media networks, App.net