My favorite Mastodon app, Mona, is now available on the App Store! This is a big day for the app and for its wonderful developer, Jonny Kuang. I’ve had the privilege of testing it out for the past few months, so I thought today I’d share a few of the reasons Mona is my Mastodon app of choice.

Design: Mona is a good-looking and easy-to-use app. It fits in with the current design of Apple platforms while still maintaining a visual identity of its own. The iconography is straightforward and easy to understand. The app isn’t too opinionated in its design, but it isn’t bland, either. I love the way it feels to use Mona.
Timeline Media: Many Mastodon apps have struggled to get this right, but Mona nails it from the start. Photos are uncropped and full-size if you want them to be (which I do). Videos autoplay silently. And GIFs loop like they were born to do.
Threads: If someone you follow shares a response to another post, you often want to see the context of that conversation. This is where timeline threads come in handy, and Mona does a great job of displaying them. Threads look natural in the timeline, encouraging continued conversation.
Quote Posts: While quote posting isn’t an official Mastodon feature yet, it’s fully functional in Mona. The gives you the ability to quote a post rather than simply reblogbing it so that you can add your own commentary before sharing. And quote posts look awesome in the timeline, too.
Grouped Notifications: Mastodon is all about interaction, and interaction means lots of notifications. Mona helps you keep your notifications tidy by grouping similar ones together. If you get multiple reposts or favorites on a post, they’ll be grouped together into a single line of notifications, saving screen space and leaving room for other notifications like replies.
Customization: Mona works great out of the box, and I’m sure lots of people will enjoy it without ever touching a single setting. But for those like me who love tinkering, Mona is endlessly customizable. You can change everything about the app from the navigation tabs to the actions under each post to the color of every element on the screen. There’s even a vibrant community of people sharing themes for Mona to make it look even cooler. You can make the app into exactly the Mastodon app you want, which is just amazing.
Accessibility: An app can only be considered truly great if it is accessible to everyone. Mona is a shining example of an tool made for all. It’s built from the ground up to be used completely with VoiceOver and includes numerous accessibility options in-app as well. (Accessibility is the topmost category in Mona’s settings.) I’m happy to support an app knowing that it’s inclusive in its design and can be enjoyed by everyone.

These are some of the big reasons why I’m using Mona every day. There are many, many more, but I’ll save those for another day. It truly is an incredible app, and I’m so happy that it’s now available to the world. I highly recommend you give it a try and see if it’s a good fit for you, too.

Mona is available as a free download on the App Store and offers basic functionality at no cost. Additional features can be unlocked on a single device by purchasing Mona Pro ($10) or on all of your devices by purchasing Mona Pro Max ($16), which includes Family Sharing. Those who have previously purchased Jonny’s Twitter client Spring can purchase Mona Pro Max at a discounted price of $9. More details about premium Mona features are available here.

Complete side note: I somehow made my way into Mona’s App Store/press kit screenshots with my cringey Fast and Furious joke. 😅