Yesterday night, I had the opportunity to be a part of the beta testing for the brand new Ivory for Mastodon for Mac app by Tapbots.
With that, I have been testing it over the past 24 hours and have the good and the bad with this app.
Let’s start with the pros.
The pros begin with the fact that if you are a previous Tweetbot for Mac user, it’s going to look almost exactly the same (in a good way) and have that familiar interface that users of Tweetbot cherished.
Another aspect of this app too is Timeline Sync, which syncs your timeline so if you’re viewing Ivory on a device like an iPhone or iPad, then view it on your Mac, it syncs from where you were last at from the previous device you were using the app on.
Additionally, the similarities between this app and the iPhone and iPad apps simply make this app, well, easy to use. There’s not much of a learning curve to it.
Being able to customize the app, such as the colors and font sizes is another nice touch for the first version of the app in the beta. I also like the option to see posts individually in the app. It can make it easier on the eyes.
When it comes to the cons, I have found that when scrolling up in the app to refresh my timeline, it feels like it’s almost impossible. It’s much easier to close Ivory on my Mac and reopen it if I need an immediate timeline refresh. However, I have been unable to determine whether or not it is an issue with the app itself or the hardware in the trackpad of my 2017 MacBook Pro I am using it on.
I also found a bug where the notification icon on the app on my dock does not go away after viewing said notification. It’s small stuff for now, so that’s good in the first release of Ivory for Mac.
One feature I would like to see in Ivory for Mac is the ability to have the timeline stream the same way Tweetbot for Mac used to before Twitter removed the option in its API. It’d be nice to have the “pin to the top” feature in the timeline so all of my new Mastodon posts come in automatically instead of me having to refresh my timeline manually.
At this time, there is no official launch date for when the app will release in the Mac App Store. To learn more about Ivory for Mac, visit its page on the Tapbots website.
