With the world at our fingertips, it's only logical that our wrists join the party! Chirp's developer, Will Bishop, takes a bold stride in wearable social networking, launching Stomp, a feature-rich Mastodon app for your Apple Watch. Birthed in the aftermath of Elon Musk's Twitter acquisition and its subsequent blow to third-party clients, Stomp is all set to bring Mastodon to your wrist, complete with a user-friendly interface for viewing timelines, checking trends, sending messages, and much more.
Bishop, a seasoned Apple Watch app developer, has been passionately building for the platform for years. His portfolio includes a miniaturized version of Reddit, Nano, and the Twitter app, Chirp, which was introduced in 2018. However, the drastic API changes following Twitter's rebranding to "X" under Musk's tenure led to the demise of Chirp and many other third-party Twitter apps like Twitterrific, Tweetbot, Echofon, and Fenix.
Looks like Twitter finally shut down Chirp
— Will Bishop (@WillRBishop) July 14, 2023
19 June 2018 - 14 July 2023
It had a great 5 year run. It was my first app to gain traction and the experiences that resulted from it have been incredible.
I’ll take it off the App Store later today.
This led to a pivot in strategy, with developers, including Bishop, steering their skills towards building for Mastodon. Tapbots and Fenix's developers transitioned to create Ivory and Woolly respectively, catering to Mastodon users. Stomp, though, stands out with its Apple Watch compatibility, making it a unique entrant in the wave of third-party Mastodon clients.
Bishop elaborates, "With Twitter/X’s acquisition, I've received numerous requests to create a Chirp-like app for Mastodon. Stomp is my response to that.” He further adds, "Stomp equips Mastodon with the Chirp treatment. It has all the major features you’d expect from an iPhone Mastodon app, but designed in my signature Apple Watch style."
Stomp serves as a comprehensive Mastodon app, allowing endless scrolling of your Mastodon timeline, liking and boosting posts, and even replying to posts from your wrist. Moreover, it supports tapping on links, mentions, and hashtags, akin to an iPhone app. Though it does require an extra step for viewing webpages due to third-party restrictions, Stomp cleverly bypasses this by using third-party sign-in support on Apple Watch.
Although Stomp can be downloaded for free from the App Store, some of its features come at a price. Users can upgrade to "Stomp Pro" via an in-app purchase to unlock the ability to create and reply to posts, use direct messages, and access search and lists. The developer offers multiple payment options, including a "pay what you want" scheme, monthly or annual subscriptions, and an in-app Tip Jar.
So why wait? Give your Apple Watch a new lease on social networking life with Stomp, available now on the App Store.
