Fediverse

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Is there a Mastodon app (for Android) that allows for anonymous browsing? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Sometimes I like to browse Mastodon just to see what's going on, especially when breaking news is happening (similar to how twitter used to be useful for). I don't have any interest in posting or commenting or boosting or anything, I just want to browse. I'm currently just using mastodon.social as a PWA and it works ok I guess, but I'm wondering if there are any android apps that will allow me to browse Mastodon without requiring a login.

I tried looking at a bunch of Mastodon apps about a year ago and every app would start with a login page and wouldn't let me proceed until I logged in. Is that still the case? Or are there any apps that will let me browse anonymously without logging in first?

I will say, this is one thing I love about Lemmy over Mastodon. Every Lemmy app I've tried defaults to anonymous browsing but still has the option to login if you want. This makes it so much easier to try out multiple Lemmy apps to see which one I like best.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

If you install Firefox Focus and make it your default browser on Android the Jerboa client (and others I think) will use it when loading links unless you have a specific app associated with a given URL (e.g. NYT app, NPR app, etc).

If you're not familiar with Firefox Focus it's a version of Firefox built for privacy. It basically makes it so that every URL you load behaves like a private browser tab. It also has ad-blocking built in which is sweet (though it doesn't work on everything/not as good as uBlock Origin).

Oops: Just realized your question is related to Mastodon and not Lemmy. Though I'm certain that Firefox Focus would work the same way for Mastodon clients.

Actually, I just checked Tusky and yes, it does load URLs in Firefox Focus. So my advice is still good 👍

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I think the question was meant in terms of Mastodon, not the connected web browser. I.e. are there any apps that let you look at Mastodon posts without signing into Mastodon? Something like Jerboa's anonymous mode.