Decentralized Instagram killer Pixelfed is getting a mobile app

In a turn of events that may be causing Meta headaches, a decentralized alternative to Instagram is growing by leaps and bounds. Pixelfed is a free and open source photo sharing site originally created in 2018. and in the last few years has largely been available through web or through third-party applications. This week, however, Pixelfed announced rolling out its own mobile apps for iOS and Android, signaling a major expansion for a site that already has around 330,000 users and a growing support base.

Pixelfed tried to present itself as everything that Instagram is not. Unlike the Meta site, Pixelfed is ad-free and offers users a charter which respects their “fundamental rights” to “participate in online spaces that respect their privacy, dignity and well-being”. The charter promises limited but compliant data collection, transparent algorithms and a surveillance-free experience with zero web tracking. “Pixelfed is many things, but one thing it is not is an opportunity for VCs or others to spoil the mood. I declined VC funding and will not inject advertising in any form into the project,” Pixelfed creator Daniel Supernault recently wrote of Mastodon. “Pixelfed is for the people, period.”

This respect for user autonomy may be why the app seems to be growing in popularity. Indeed, Pixelfed’s growth has exploded over the past week, with the platform announcing an influx of users who have occasionally tested the small team’s current resources. “We’re seeing unprecedented levels of traffic to pixelfed.social and are working to maintain the service and provide additional resources!” Mastodon’s page on the site wrote Sunday.

You can understand how this might make Meta more than a little worried. Doubts were raised earlier this week when 404 Media reported that the tech giant was caught censoring and deleting links to Pixelfed on its own sites. Meta uses the violation of its spam policy as an excuse. However, when Engadget reached out for comment, Meta claims that the deletion of the Pixelfed links was a “mistake” and that they would subsequently be reinstated.

Gizmodo has reached out to Meta for comment.

The social media industry is in a state of flux like never before, and the competition between mainstream platforms and low-content alternatives has reached new heights. While Mastodon and other Fediverse sites have has been around for yearsElon Musk’s takeover of Twitter pushed such alternative sites into the mainstream. Now that users are looking for X alternatives on sites like Bluesky and Hive, it makes sense that web users might also be interested in looking for an alternative to Meta’s offerings. As TikTok threatens to disappear forever, web users are even turning to another Chinese app, RedNotealthough it might make more sense to migrate to Loops instead, another Fediverse alternative which Supernault launched last year.