I received a notification to sign up for an account after I signed up for the Apple App Store pre-order of Trump's social media platform Truth Social.
I was put on a wait list like everyone else.
Truth Social decided to open the door and give me access to its new social media platform.
The time has come. I've been invited to join Truth Social. Credit: Mashable Screenshot
Read the notification that came in at 2 a.m. on a Saturday.
I did. Donald J. Trump has a social network. I had to check it out.
I was directed to the app immediately after tapping the notification, and then whisked away to my Truth Social profile.
Here's what your profile looks like when you first enter Truth Social. Credit: Mashable Screenshot
My profile was empty. I also saw that there were tabs for "Truths", "Truths Replies", and "Media" below where your follower counts are. The founder of Truth Social was kicked off of the website after the events of January 6, 2021. You get a light Truth Social purple color scheme, but everything else is the same, even though the labels are changed.
Truth Social is the most nice of the conservative social media platforms. It feels like a modern day web platform thanks to Mastodon, the open source software it is built with.
Here's where you write your "Truth." Credit: Mashable Screenshot
The Compose screen looks exactly like it did when you pressed the button. The character count limit is 500 characters, which is 220 more than is allowed on the micro-blogging site. Something different is finally here.
The Truth Social app has a menu at the bottom.
This is what your feed looks like when you first join Truth Social. "No Truths to show"... Credit: Mashable Screenshot
The top profiles listed on the default Truth Social search page. Credit: Mashable Screenshot
Feed is a collection of posts from all the users you follow. Users can find new profiles, truths, and popular trends through Search. Alerts is the equivalent to a notification on the social networking site, showing all the re-truths and mentions of your handle. Private messages from other users would live in messages. There doesn't appear to be a way to privately message other users at the moment, according to the Truth Social app.
Mentions and re-truths will show up here. Credit: Mashable Screenshot
Messages don't appear to be working yet on Truth Social. Credit: Mashable Screenshot
When a user goes to another user&s profile, they are able to follow that user as well as reply to their truths. Clicking on one of the user's truth shows the comments on the post, but not all the time. In a minute, more on that.
The official Truth Social profile. Credit: Mashable Screenshot
Users can change general appearance settings, block others on the site, and use 2-factor authentication from a sidebar within the app.
You can block users on the free speech platform. Credit: Mashable Screenshot
It's all about that. That is everything to Truth Social right now.
The most talked about hashtags on Truth Social at the time of publishing. Credit: Mashable Screenshot
There are a lot of bugs on Truth Social. It is clear that it is still a very early version of the app. There doesn't seem to be a working direct messages feature. The search function does not seem to work well. I was flooded with profiles from fans of the former president when I searched for him. Not a single profile belonging to the Trump family appeared in the results.
Donald Trump doesn't appear in the search results for "Trump." Credit: Mashable Screenshot
After publishing a truth, it took quite a few changes to show up on my profile page. It took so long that I doubted it would ever happen, but then it did.
Those comments that were previously mentioned do not always show up. They show if a post has more than 100 comments. If a user tries to view the comments on a post with hundreds or more comments, they will not load. It is not clear if this is an issue where the server can handle the load or if this part of the app is poorlycoded.
Truth Social was able to load these 160 replies to Dan Bonino's post but it could not load the comments for a similar Bongino post with 500 replies. Credit: Mashable Screenshot
When their account is ready, users receive an email notification as well. If a user clicks through on their desktop, they are met with a 404 page because there is no desktop version of Truth Social.
There are issues with the content. Truth Social claims to be a free speech platform, but it has policies and community guidelines similar to the Big Tech social media platforms. For one, Truth Social has already banned a user for using a usernames that its CEO doesn't like.
Over the past few days, there have been a few articles about Trump complaining and being angry over the failure of the Truth Social launch. I can attest that the former President of the United States has only posted a single truth since its launch more than two weeks ago. The social media app was at the top of the App Store charts, but has since fallen down.
Trump has posted once on Truth Social in the weeks it has been live. Credit: Mashable Screenshot
More revealing is how many people follow Trump there. Over 200,000 people were following the former president on Truth Social when this article was published. Truth Social exists because of Trump, a place where people can hear from the founder after he's been banned everywhere else. He would be the first person you would follow if you use Truth Social. When you open the search tab, he is the first user to suggest a search query.
Other journalists who have gained access to Truth Social in the last few days, such as Ruby Cramer of Politico, have noted that it appears to be dead.
Cramer wrote that there wasn't much happening on the site.
That is true. It is a new platform. The problem is where the engagement on the site is happening. It is the same issue that has plagued Truth Social competitors. The action happens in the comments of the most popular users. People are talking with other people who stumbled upon their thread in a reply section full of thousands and thousands of comments.
Truth Social's top posts seem to mostly be from verified users. Credit: Mashable Screenshot
If you are not a conservative, you are barely seeing any interaction on Truth Social. These people are barely acknowledging the people they are talking to. The average user doesn't have much reason to stay on the platform. It is ironic because the average Truth Social user is often the type to mock the verified users on social media. Truth Social has verified users who seem to be generating any real engagement.
The NFL isn't actually on Truth Social. Credit: Mashable Screenshot
According to Truth Social, users will notice a number of accounts that are labeled "BOT" when going to the search tab. The account appears to just post the latest articles from the sports network. How many Truth Social accounts have been set up in the name of a third-party without their consent?
Alternative and free speech platforms like Truth Social don't have advanced algorithms that recommend users to follow or check out new posts. Truth Social does not suggest users to follow when they sign up. It seems like a good way to stop first-time users from returning to Truth Social is to have an empty feed.
Whether you are a Trump hater or willing to storm the Capitol for him, we all agree on one thing: Trump is not boring. His social media platform is. That is a bad deal for Truth Social users and a bad deal for The Donald.
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