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decentralised societal networking may be the future , but in the lag , there are a lot of Twitter choice to keep up with . A new app calledYupaims to aid by offering a single home to read feeds , trace admirer across services and cross - post to a range of social apps , including Twitter / X itself , as well as Bluesky , Farcaster , Lens and Threads — although the latter comes with abigcaveat .
Instagram manoeuvre Adam Mosseri announced last month thata Threads API was in the works , which would allow developers to build apps that connect with the Threads ecosystem . However , that API is not yet publicly available , which mean Yup has follow up with a workaround to support Threads .
The company tell TechCrunch the app “ informally uses the interior API ” that the Threads web guest expend , but it plans to migrate to the prescribed API when one is free . Because of this nag of sorts , being capable to utilize Threads via Yup means having to turn off Instagram’stwo - broker authentication(2FA ) — an additional way of guarantee your access to the app via a login code sent over text or an authentication app . TechCrunch doesnotrecommend you disable 2FA , even though an app for cross - posting to Threads , Twitter and Bluesky is much in need .
That said , we still thought it was illustrious to comment on the launching of Yup , as an example of how fractured the social app ecosystem has become following Elon Musk ’s acquisition of Twitter , now called X. In the months since , new Twitter rivals have emerged and grown , let in the open reference deconcentrate platformMastodonandThreads , whichpromises to integrate with the ActivityPub protocolthat power Mastodon and a broad “ fediverse ” of decentralized societal apps .
But those are n’t the only efforts underway focused on rebuilding the societal internet . Competing protocol , like the decentralized protocolFarcasterand the web3 - poweredLens , are also in the running , as is theAT ProtocolfromBluesky .
At launching , even Yup itself does n’t support the full social app ecosystem . Mastodon is notably miss , as isNostr , the decentralized protocol poweringapps likeDamusand others , which is favor by Twitter co - founding father and former CEO , now Block CEO , Jack Dorsey .
Yup says it ’s exploring sum up support for those Service in the time to come . But currently , the cross - posting app support Twitter / X , Bluesky , Farcaster , Threads and Lens .
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Yup ’s cobalt - foundersNir KabessaandVernon Johnsonmet at Colombia University where they both became involved in the web3 space and open social networks .
“ What we realized is one of the vantage of these novel open societal networks , like Bluesky , is how much they ’re interoperable with one another and sort of aggregatable and consolidatable all as a consumer product , ” explain Kabessa . “ And that not only would that allow users to have a more powerful kind of consolidated experience , where all their friends are in one position , even though these platform are very newfangled , but it also allows them to establish their societal graphical record on other weapons platform and protocols while continuing to use things as they normally do , ” he added .
The squad believes Yup could serve as a tool that allows consumer and Almighty to build their audiences across platforms by cross - posting and engaging with unresolved communications protocol , while still maintain their front on big societal apps like Twitter / X.
However , Yup ’s backup forX requires it to pay $ 5,000 per monthin API fee . The company is funding this outgo from a $ 3.5 million seed unit of ammunition it call forth a bit under two years ago . That bout was led by Distributed Global with Dapper Labs ( makers ofCryptoKitties ) and other holy man , include Miramax CEO Bill Block andBitCloutfounder Nader al - Naji , also participate .
Yup hadearlier focused on a different project around ratings and rewards , but pivoted to social app collection around a class and a one-half ago , we ’re told .
Although some tools allow consumer to cross - post to multiple social sites , such asFedicawhich affirm X , Mastodon and Bluesky , among others , there are n’t many cross - posting tools uncommitted for both X and Threads and the wide array of decentralised apps that are aimed at consumers . ( To be honest , we ’re not sure how prospicient Yup will be allow to control given its hack for Threads livelihood , but the company noted it had not gotten any pushback from Instagram as of yet . Its app also made it through approvals on both theApp StoreandGoogle Play , for what it ’s deserving . )
Yup is now live in the App Store !
If you ’re newfangled here , Yup is the all - in - one social aggregator for Twitter , Farcaster , Lens , Bluesky , Threads , and more .
iPhone : https://t.co / fcgzNkztrR
humanoid : https://t.co / YEIRd0nz4Opic.twitter.com/3SnYlM2aEK
— Yup ☁ ️ 🌿 🟣 🐦 🧵 ( @yup_io)November 16 , 2023
As for the Yup app itself , the experience is much as you ’d expect . After connecting your accounts , you may toggle on which apps you want to send to from its principal “ compose ” screen .
There are other areas that will present a challenge for Yup going forward , too — like referencing or quoting posts from one political platform to another . More work will need to be done to make this a fully functional app for anything beyond transversal - placard , we guess .
Still , the fact that such an app like Yup has come into existence at all is an indicant of where we are today with so many competing protocols for a decentralised societal web . That does n’t make things easier for consumers looking to move by from Big Tech companies or for developers — it makes things more fractured and more confusing . A decentralized social web is swell in hypothesis but not if there are half a twelve protocol that do n’t interoperate . Hopefully , some sort of consensus will eventually be achieved here .
In the meanwhile , we suppose , there ’s Yup .
For now , the app is gratis to habituate . A future version may offer a compensate subscription to support its costs go forward .
