Back in July the social platform App.net launched for the public via a kickstarter style croud funding drive with just two yearly prices. The initial price offering was $50 for users and $100 for developers. While they did meet and excede their goal it did leave out many who felt $50 per year was too rich.
On October 1st they changed their pricing model. The yearly rate was been reduced to $36 and a $5 a month plan for those who want to try it out and price was holding them back. Now that I got my account these are my first impressions of the platform and a few of the apps built on it.
Starting out with the core platform it is rather simple and has the feel of early twitter but don’t let this think it is a twitter clone since it’s far more than that. At the current time the profile system lets you set the basics such as bio, display name, avatar and cover image but not text colors/background but they do got one interesting twist.. right in your profile you got option to export your data.
Now the magic kicks in when you start using community developed features such as apps, browser plugins, alternate front-ends.
- First off the android client Hooha from @deniz which offers everything you would expect from a mobile app wrapped in a visually appealing design that fits perfectly into the Android 4.0 and 4.1 platform quite nicely.
- Next up is the chrome extension Succynct from @abraham which provides notifications in browser in addition to posting from URL bar and many other cool features.
- And last thing is the previously twitter only photo sharing Mobypicture which has added support for logging in with your App.net account and a labs feature that enables App.net as a target.
Over all the core platform plus the community features i’ve outlined make it a solid platform. Stay tuned for more posts as the platform evolves.