This app could potentially supplant Tik Tok overtime. As Tik Tok’s censorship following it’s acquisition by US investors such as Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based MGX, and UpScrolled already having questionable ethics, this may be the path forward.
That’s… maybe not the greatest screenshot to use if you want to support them. The nearly invisible, black-on-dark-blue heading kinda makes it look vibe coded
Might just look that way because it’s using the default theme of Tailwind CSS, which is coincidentally the weapon of choice for sloptimized vibe code.
It would be amazing to ditch the company control and so. The main problem is that it’s difficult to get users to join it. I mean just look at how many people still use reddit and discord.
I mean just look at how many people still use reddit and discord.
And Twitter
UpScrolled already having questionable ethics
Which questionable ethics? I’m out of the loop.
EDIT: I’m sorry but I’ll take this post and some of the allegations with a grain of salt. Your account is made in January 2026 and this is your first and only post. Your comments are only in here as well. However, I do hope you can clear up about which ethics are questionable on UpScrolled.
I’ve seen other people on Mastodon/Bluesky mention that the site takes an ‘anti-censorship’ approach to moderation, so there’s a bunch of far right people doing Nazi stuff on there.
I have been on UpScrolled for about 23-25 days and have not seen any Nazi stuff. However, I keep my feed and the people I follow mainly about Anime and Palestine.
If there’s indeed Nazi stuff on it, I hope the developer removes it. Zionism and Nazi are both insanely shit ideologies that should have never come to existence.
That mixed with not having an algorithm, I’ve seen a lot of sexual stuff I was not looking for.
That mixed with not having an algorithm
Is not that a part of the advantage? You, the person, deciding what you want to see and follow. I think Mastodon and BlueSky are similar in that regard.
I’ve seen a lot of sexual stuff I was not looking for.
Follow the developer of the app and you’ll understand why;
I’m fine with not having an algorithm I just don’t feel the need to see some ladies twat unless I’m looking for that content specifically. I’m not saying the platform is bad, just it needs some work still.
I’m fine with not having an algorithm
Then why even mentioning it (in a more negative than neutral tone)?
I just don’t feel the need to see some ladies twat unless I’m looking for that content specifically. I’m not saying the platform is bad, just it needs some work still.
Whether you use the platform or not, does not really matter (to me). You are right the platform needs some work and they’re putting the work while being one of social media platform that’s being targeted by Zionists.
I have written what, I wanted to write. I have shown the text and image the developer wrote. That’s about it. I’ll leave it at that, I guess.
If it doesn’t have an algorithm aren’t you responsible for what you’re seeing?
Not unless you count scrolling up a bit as consent to see nsfl stuff.
Yup and it’s closed source, it’s of course likely to be more lax for a time than Tik Tok&Instagram until it takes over…
What is closed source ? Aren’t those up to date?
https://github.com/joinloops/loops-server#license
Loops Server is open-sourced software licensed under the AGPL license.
That’s misleading, they plan on being open sourced according to pubs:
Similar to how Mastodon offers an open source, distributed version of X, the fediverse is getting its own TikTok competitor. This week, an app called Loops began accepting signups on its new platform for sharing short, looping videos. Still in the early stages, Loops is not yet open sourced, nor has it completed its integration with ActivityPub, the protocol that powers Mastodon, Pixelfed, PeerTube, and other federated apps.
However, both those efforts are in the works and when complete, will allow Loops to add another layer of social activity to the growing open social web known as the fediverse, which now has north of 11.6 million users and over 1 million monthly active users. (Mastodon accounts for roughly 65% of that activity.) Growth in this space has also encouraged other apps to adopt ActivityPub, like social magazine app Flipboard and Meta’s Threads. The latter is not yet fully integrated but already has more than 200 million monthly active users.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/25/the-fediverse-is-getting-its-own-tiktok-competitor-called-loops/
Wait, what’s this if it’s closed source? https://github.com/joinloops/loops-server
That article is over a year old and it’s still not open source.
Isn’t piefed open source? You might be right, but we’ll see, yeah?
Edit: What would be the benefit of waiting to become open source? Piefed seems to be a great platform, that’s why I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt. But again, I could be wrong and he’s super greedy.
Pixelfed ≠ Piefed
but it is open source
Pixelfed is open-sourced software licensed under the AGPL license. https://github.com/pixelfed/pixelfed?tab=readme-ov-file#license
edit: Looks like Loops is open-source as well :
You’re right, I thought it was the Piefed guy.
My apologies, I called UpScrolled closed source because it is, not Loops.
So Loops is open sourced then?
Yes.
I wonder if it will function more like Vine?
Maybe it’s because I’m a decade older now, but Vine seemed awesome and I would jump on it for 10-20 minutes a day and have no problem putting it down, even forgetting to check it a week at a time.
I haven’t touched tik tok because it seems like it is much more toxic and addictive in comparison.
Clone the brain rot, that’ll save you…
I mean, at least you will have the brainrot without profiling, censorship and potentially clients that make it easier to get off the brainrot
What is the point of recreating media format designed exclusively to grab attention as much as possible and monetize it?
Edit: I’m not saying that loops is planning to monetize it. I’m trying to say that the short video format was designed as being additive, so that the addiction can be monetized.
To use it to deprogram the next generation of fascist
I’d say it’s to help replace unhealthy addictions with a platform that’s smaller and less easy to fall into infinite scroll rabbit holes. Like nic-patches to stop smoking.
the short video format was designed as being additive,
lmao. designed by whom? additive to what? cool story.
and monetize it
Have you used TikTok? If you had in the beginning, it was full of people doing history videos, diy, etc. I suspect it will be something like that. I don’t use it anymore, but it was great in the beginning,.I suspect that if you’re on Loops, especially at first, monetizing it isn’t your first thing. The meme communities are probably going to go nuts.
It still is that way, it just depends on what kind of content you engage with. People on reddit/lemmy LOVE to hate on short form video content but it isn’t inherently destructive or evil IMO., it just depends on how you interact with it.
Short text can be as afdictive as short videos yrt one seems ok and the other not
That’s cool, still not gonna consume short form media. Idk why people with the desire to have healthy online habits would appreciate this new product. It’ll be slopped with politics and AI in no time like Lemmy is already suffering from.
Short form is cool because it’s like constrained writing.
Tiktok was pretty great while it was just silly videos.\ But it’s not short form anymore so it’s full of political essays and propaganda.
I kinda hope that loops is more like vine than tiktok or vertical YouTube. But it’ll probably be up to the instance to govern video length.
I can’t stand shorts, tick-tock, or any of those videos. The videos I watch are usually comprehensive, longer than 10 mins, and I pause, rewind, slow down ect the video.
People don’t want an addicting, toxic, alienating, depressing, billionaire-owned platform.
They want a addicting, toxic, alienating, depressing, non-billionaire-owned platform … Apparently.
We don’t want a monarchy. We want a spectacle fueled capitalistic society.
Is there some trend in humanity, where it’s like… we don’t care if we suffer so long as it’s not to the benefit of someone else? We gotta build our own suffering machines of culture instead? What’s up with that?
Is it so wrong to want to watch a funny video from time to time on the bus? IMO the best thing about loops, piefed or whatever is that there’s so little on here that you can open your app of choice for about 30 minutes to an hour and then be done for the week.
I would argue, based on my perception of people who use and abuse those platforms, as well as data to suggest and confirm the above descriptors, that yes it is so wrong lol
I mean, you’re free to eat mcdonalds all you want, but let’s not pretend it’s a healthy choice in any way you measure it
Is it so wrong to just take a little hit of heroin from time to time?
Short form content is actively making people dumber, causing speech impediments in kids by cause their parents and themselves are addicted to the dopamine hit of scrolling.
Is it so wrong to just take a little hit of heroin from time to time?
Is it so wrong to make an absurd, pseudo-scientific claim that’s literally destroying the internet?
Are you going to ban alcohol as well because that’s a neurotoxin?
Maybe you put down the pop science magazine for five seconds and understand that a single study, or even five studies, does not a consensus make. You sound like moms against video games or whatever the hell like it was called it back in the 2000s.
Also, great job completely ignoring the point about non-incorporated vectors for engaging with short form videos don’t have enough content for you to continuously scroll.
Not sure about OP, but I think that yes, end goal should be banning alcohol consumption completely.
Yeah, the fact that it’s so normalized in society makes me sick.
A platform that’s not cleansed of anti-genocide anti-ice content is still a step
healthy online habits
This kind of pseudo-science is exactly why TikTok is controlled by zionists, why age-gates are coming to Linux, etc, etc, etc.
Is it ready? It’s been promised for a year or so now and was only available available by some signup list.
It’s available, but I don’t know about ready. You can register freely, you can download a phone app (through apk) and you can scroll. When I tried it the other week it still failed to deliver any worthwhile content in a quick enough time. I don’t think the recommendation algorithm is good enough (although there also just isn’t a ton of stuff on there in general).
It does also lack a lot of features, I think the biggest one is a built-in editor. Right now every video must be single take and that’s going to be in the way of mass adoption.
I think it’s hurting them that it says “join the beta”. To me, that means being put on a waitinglist and hoping to be picked. Better wording would’ve been “Join us (in beta)” or simply “join us”. Only now did I click on it and found out that I had to download a raw apk. Which brings me to the next point: it’s only on the iOS App Store. The majority of phone users on the planet (overwhelmingly so) are Android users. Why target the minority first? And why provide the majority with a link to a file that requires extra actions? It should be on the Google Store and on F-Droid first, then the App Store.
Anyway, I’m not the target audience, nor am I a programmer, so I’m grateful that somebody is putting in the work. Hopefully they can convince enough people to join and get off of closed-source platforms!
I have no idea why it’s been prioritised for the iOS app store, but either it’s a case of its creator being an iPhone user, or American I guess (I believe iPhone still has a majority market share in the US).
dansup is Canadian. I guess it makes sense to get the iPhone app up on the store first if you’re trying to get users from the US market where people are moving away from TT currently.
“Get in loser we are going to open-source a turd”
I felt my back break when I went on the app and sorted by retro and saw stuff I didn’t think was that old.
UpScrolled is also for-profit right?
Loops has a lot of bugs, but my biggest issue with it is the video quality is awful for anything with lots of motion, especially moving water. If I wanted videos without motion I’d take a picture.
When I asked dansup about this his reply was “we’re happy with the quality”, glad he is, no one else is though.
The app has had more “coming soon” announcements than anything actually materializing. I appreciate his vision and effort but not his delivery, and dear lawd his egotistical posts, yikes.
I would love to see Loops turn into what he keeps promising but so far, it hasn’t.It’s getting there, but still needs a good amount of ui fixes. The below mentioned are my personal issues with the app.
- scrolling is sometimes wonky with flicking to the next video and goes past 2 to 3 other videos
- double-tapping to like is a sorely missed feature
- tapping the home button should refresh the feed
- using foldable cause issues with how things are displayed and sometimes causes a takeaway you back to there beginning of the feed
All this being said I still use it. They are making progress and I hope they keep going.
It needs an app (edit: that is available through Play store or the corresponding apple shop)
And it needs to render uploaded videos to the maximum allowed file size. Regular people don’t know how to make their videos smaller. I only managed to do it by uploading to you tube the then downloading it from there. Then it was small enough to to be uploaded to loops
Also, easier sign up and more content
loops has a app if you are talking about them, I just had to uninstall the previous to install the newest as it’s been awhile since I’ve used it.
I’m a developer looking for a new pet project. This sound line a fun challenge :) open source multi platform compose app. I might just start it today
Keep me informed!👌👍🤞
It needs an app
There is an app both for apple and android. Just scroll down the page a bit: https://joinloops.org/join-the-beta
It needs third-party apps.
For 12 throw that might be kinda hard. Newish account to promote loops
Newish account to promote loops
Probably, but it seems to be an open-source fediverse community project with no VC backing, so I don’t begrudge them it. Like, how else do you get fediverse projects seen if not in a fediverse discussion community, you want them to just buy Google ads instead?
