Introducing Oxpecker, a Mastodon client for Apple Watch
By Vincent Neo • June 8, 2024
Featuring a sleek and easy to use design, Oxpecker promises to deliver an unprecedented experience for the consumption of Mastodon content, directly on the Apple Watch, giving users a new way to read, react and reply on the go. With its exclusive set of new and innovative features, this new Mastodon client opens the Apple Watch to new use cases.
Works even without iPhone
Oxpecker supports standalone usage for users using a cellular Apple Watch, with an active cellular data plan, allowing users to consume Mastodon content, on the go, even without the presence of their iPhone, once logged in.
Renders Custom Emojis
Oxpecker is the first Mastodon client on the Apple Watch to render custom emojis on every post, made possible using breakthrough proprietary rendering code, enabling users access to a desktop-class reading experience, right from their wrists.
Zoom on Photos
With Oxpecker, users can view photos, not just as a whole, as users can zoom in to see the details by taking advantage of the Apple Watch's Digital Crown - spinning in or out, zooms the photo, in or out. In addition, interactive content, such as videos and GIFs can be enjoyed too, along with Alternative text.
Powerful, yet easy-to-use
The new Oxpecker app aims to let users easily scroll and read posts, directly after the app is launched, where users are immediately brought to their home timeline, rather than needing to go through menu after menu.
The powerful architecture behind Oxpecker's post rendering, allows for each post in a timeline to be displayed with media content previews, link previews with numbers of comments, reposts and favourites, all shown in-line, providing you with desktop-class usability and performance, yet with glanceable characteristics. Posts in a timeline, can also be endlessly scrolled, with Oxpecker intelligently fetching older posts, as you scroll.
Browse Links
Oxpecker is equip with a browser - this allows users to tap on links shared in any post, to quickly preview the contents of a link, directly in the app itself.
Notifications Enabled
With push notifications enabled, Oxpecker delivers the latest happenings of your Mastodon account, directly to your Apple Watch. Media content such as a photo attachment of a new post that you were tagged in, also appears within the push notification itself, ideal for quick glances, before deciding whether to reply or to view the post in full.
Customizable Font Sizes
In addition to Dynamic Type support, Oxpecker allows users to adjust text display sizes, to further fit the needs of all users. The value that is set in-app, still scales according to the system wide font size provided by Dynamic Type, so that users can be reassured, that when the system wide font size is adjusted, Oxpecker respects it as well.
Pricing and Availability
Oxpecker is available starting today, June 3, at apple.co/3X7IrT1 for users with Apple Watch running watchOS 10.0 and above. For more information, visit oxpecker.social.
Oxpecker is free to use for reading purposes, with subscription plans starting at $1.99 (U.S.), that unlocks a plethora of features, including notifications, interactions and more.
