Loops is a Fediverse TikTok alternative by the creator of Pixelfed. We try the app out for a spin, and give our honest thoughts.

Loops aims to be an open Fediverse alternative to TikTok, Snapchat, and Vine. We take an early look at the app, and talk about what it’s like!

  • recursive_recursion they/them@lemmy.caEnglish
    11·
    3 days ago

    Loops hasn’t yet released its source code or enabled federation, but project lead Dan Supernault has stated that he will do both in the near future.

    Buying into promises is a gamble dependant on the crediblity and trustworthiness of the person/entity making them

  • The Octonaut@mander.xyzEnglish
    82·
    4 days ago

    No source code and no federation just makes this a worse app with less liability for bad actions. Not sure why he’s pushing this before those are ready. Pixelfed itself isn’t exactly finished yet.

    • OpenStars@piefed.socialEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      At a guess, bc the timing might seem right with all the controversy surrounding Tiktok? Knowing that this is out there may increasing the number of contributors to the codebase.

      Also I recall clicking on a GitHub page at some point for a front-end web UI for this content, so while the sourcecode of the app itself may not be available yet, there is a way for someone to make their own instance to receive the federated content. I think.

      In comparison, the Sublinks project garnered so much attention that the Lemmy.World admins seemed ready to jump onto it the moment that it was halfway ready, but now we haven’t heard of any progress whatsoever for months and people seem to have given up hope for it. So communication about a project can be quite important as well as the actual coding itself.

  • Pasta Dental@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    61·
    4 days ago

    The app is good, however what makes the other platforms good is their algorithm and the content that is available. If those are missing (and they likely will for privacy reasons) there’s little reason for me to use it instead of instagram reels or tiktok for example.

      • Coelacanth@feddit.nuEnglish
        61·
        4 days ago

        I mean… maybe? Those are nice things of course, but if I wanted to start using an alternative to TikTok I would never consider something without an algorithm. The whole point - for me at least - is to waste time eating digital slop served to you by an algorithm so that you don’t have to know what you want to watch when you sit down and open it up. If I already knew what I wanted to watch I wouldn’t be on an app like this, I’d be searching up the video or subject on another platform.

        • FrostyDog@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          3 days ago

          You don’t know what you get though, even without an AI driven “engagement” algorithm. If the pace of new videos being uploaded is fast enough there will be no shortage of hours to mindlessly scroll (if that’s your goal). It gives everyone an equal chance to be discovered, and from there more popular videos will have their own tabs so you can see what other people like too. The short video format is plenty addictive without pushing for maximum retention, because there’s no reason to - other platforms do it to increase your screen time so they can show you more ads. That’s all it is. All it ever was. They don’t give a shit about you or your enjoyment(YouTube dislikes?), in fact, one method of raising engagement is to make you angry, they do this a lot. It works, it’s a lesson they learned from the effectiveness of rage baits.

          It’s honestly frustrating how so many people want the same old shit algorithmiclly based feed when we’ve finally gotten rid of the fucking disease.

  • nixfreak@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    Hopefully they implant P2P-CDN , via webtorrent and webrtc to ease bandwidth costs.

  • JoYo@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    4 days ago

    I’m finally got it working, looks great! federation isn’t there yet but I’ll take it over the mastodon UI for video playback.