When the Open Social Web Hybridizes: Raccoon for Friendica is a new app... Mastodon. And it even has a little Lemmy in it! That's why the Free Software + Fediverse duo is such a valuable resource.
Raccoon 1.0 was finally released for Android in recent days, a rather innovative client originally created for #Friendica, but which has now become one of the most innovative apps for the user experience on #Mastodon. The app is available for Android (already on the Play Store and Izzidroid, and will soon be available on F-Droid), but a #Debian package has also been released. An iOS version remains to be seen for its success.
The app introduces some very important innovations to the federated app landscape.
1. Navigate the Fediverse from an app, even without creating an account
Raccoon is the only app that lets you browse the Fediverse even without an account. When you install it, you can select any Friendica or Mastodon instance and "leverage" its local public and federated timelines. This way, users can explore multiple instances before choosing which one to open an account on. Of course, even after adding an account (the app manages multiple accounts), you can browse the timelines of servers other than the one you signed up to.
2. "Browse through" messages: "swipe" navigation
Unlike all other social apps (both those for the Fediverse and those for commercial social networks), #RaccoonForFriendica lets you open a post in your timeline and continue browsing through previous and next posts by simply swiping left and right.
This is a truly interesting ergonomic innovation.
3. Finally a formatting bar in social apps
Since the app was created for Friendica, it features a built-in formatting toolbar reminiscent of Lemmy clients (in fact, the developer @janTeko first experimented with app development with a Lemmy app). The formatting toolbar can also be used for Mastodon instances running the Glitch-soc fork, such as infosec.exchange, tech.lgbt, and my poliversity.it instance, which was the one the developer experimented with.
In addition to being more immediate, writing formatted posts is also made easier by a "preview" function that helps avoid errors in Markdown or BBCode coding.
4. Finally, Mastodon users will be able to enjoy Fediverse groups too.
As you may know, Mastodon doesn't support the display of group posts. Even if you select a group, you'll still see a single timeline where top posts alternate with replies. Searching for a thread on Mastodon is therefore very complicated, but the #Raccoon developer has found a way to enable "topic" viewing across all accounts that are "activitypub groups," be they #Lemmy, #NodeBB, Piefed, Mbin, Peertube, Wordpress, Mobilizon, Flipboard, etc.
This idea also came about thanks to the fact that the developer had previously tried his hand at developing an app for Lemmy and was able to experiment with the formatting bars and display of Lemmy "communities," which are nothing other than "#activitypub groups."
5. Other interesting features
Among other features, you can
- view the HTML code of messages;
- send scheduled posts;
- fully configure the interface;
- support for writing in HTML, useful both for Mastodon Glitch-soc and for writing WordPress posts by integrating the plugin "Activitypub for Wordpress" from @pfefferle and the "Enable Mastodon App" plugin from @alex
- integrate translation libraries
6. What's still missing?
The app features all the features found in most other Mastodon apps, except one: the correct handling of Mastodon posts that quote other posts. These are still displayed in a fairly primitive way. The developer is trying to decide whether to adapt to Mastodon specifications or reinterpret the feature in a more personalized way.
It must be said that, unfortunately, the implementation of quoted messages (already present in Friendica for ages) was implemented by Mastodon very late, only in recent months, and in a very "personal" way that many other software developers did not appreciate.
7. Raccoon is an app that will benefit users who already use Mastodon but also those who have never "tried" the Fediverse
This app has been under development for almost two years, and the beta version is just over a year old. However, version 1.0 has resolved all previously encountered issues.
Based on user feedback, the developer will evaluate whether to create an iOS version and even a Windows version.
Anyone who wishes to allow reporting of application errors can enable anonymous crash reports.
8. Links and Resources
This is the developer's profile:
androiddev.social/users/janTek…
This is the app repository: github.com/LiveFastEatTrashRac…
This is the Play Store link:
play.google.com/store/apps/det…
This is the link on IzzyDroid (the app will be released on F-Droid soon, but is currently under review):
apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/a…
Here is the developer's blog:
livefasteattrashraccoon.github…
Finally, from here you can download the .apk or .deb package without using the online stores. line:
github.com/LiveFastEatTrashRac…
One last recommendation
The public's response will be important to enable the further development of this app.
If you want to test it on Mastodon, I recommend using instances running the glitch-soc fork. Among these, I'd recommend the infosec.exchange instance, which is well managed by @jerry. And of course, but only if you communicate in Italian or Esperanto, I'd be happy to host you on my poliversity.it instance.
Regarding Friendica, I recommend two instances: friendica.world, managed by @ruud and featuring a rather lively timeline, and, of course, social.trom.tf, excellently managed by @tio.
If you communicate in Italian, I'd be happy to host you on my poliverso.org instance.
Greetings to all and let me know if you need further information, if you have tried the app and how you found it.
Francesco
You can also interact with me through the Mastodon account @informapirata and the Friendica account @notizie
ActivityPub
Connect your site to the Open Social Web and let millions of users follow, share, and interact with your content from Mastodon, Pixelfed, and more.Automattic (WordPress.org)
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Lorena Alsazia
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Andrea Rizzi
in reply to macfranc • • •macfranc
in reply to Andrea Rizzi • • •@anriz I understand your concerns, because you're a Friendica user, and the Friendica web interface already provides an excellent way to view activitypub groups and group them by topic.
But the Mastodon user doesn't have the same user experience as you: for him, groups are just normal users who share both initial posts and replies in the same timeline. It's a real mess! 🤣
Raccoon on the other hand keeps things tidy and presents a neat display
@fediverse
𝔻𝕚𝕖𝕘𝕠 🦝🧑🏻💻🍕 likes this.
Andrea Rizzi
in reply to macfranc • • •𝔻𝕚𝕖𝕘𝕠 🦝🧑🏻💻🍕 likes this.
Tio
in reply to macfranc • • •like this
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macfranc
in reply to Tio • • •Your instance is one of those shortlisted by Raccoon both because it's very well moderated and because it has a local timeline accessible even without logging in.
I'm glad you'll recommend this app to your contacts. In that regard, although none of us are in love with Google (🤬), we must admit that the presence of the 1.0 release on the Play Store is essential to overcome the psychological barrier of all those users who do not want to go to alternative stores or download the .apk package.
@pfefferle @jerry @informapirata @notizie @alex @fediverse @janTeko @ruud
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Cătă 🇷🇴🇺🇦🇲🇩🇪🇺
in reply to Tio • • •FrederikNJS
in reply to macfranc • • •don't like this
Franc Mac doesn't like this.
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macfranc
in reply to FrederikNJS • • •But after all, you're a forumverse/threadverse user! You shouldn't be afraid of long posts! 😅
ggtdbz
in reply to FrederikNJS • • •Posts about Fediverse interoperability are always a mess of different flavors of internet nerds who post in radically different formats clashing. It’s a glorious mess.
Personally I think micro blogging is an atrocious anti-discourse format but I also think anyone who writes the word “discourse” is automatically not worth listening to. So what do I know.
Insert 23 redundant hashtags about open source software here and tag eight accounts run by three people across six instances
(Mastodon friends I appreciate you but your posts are painful to look at through the Lemmy interface good god)
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OpenStars
in reply to ggtdbz • • •it's the giant text isn't it?!?!? Or repeating it both in the title and then still yet over again, once more?!?!
Well I still think it's interesting content, after that.
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macfranc
in reply to OpenStars • • •@OpenStars I'm both disappointed and amused by this inconvenience.
Unfortunate, because my intention was to highlight the app's qualities, not to annoy as many readers as possible.
But I'm also amused, because unfortunately, many Lemmy apps format titles poorly, transforming #/
h1tags into something like "format a gigantic title that takes up one screen for each syllable." 🤦♂️🤣@ggtdbz
OpenStars
in reply to macfranc • • •I am not sure that you would get this unless I add your user tag @macfranc@poliversity.it ?
It is not your fault. The entire Fediverse is still being built, and it only gets better over time.😀 The fact that Lemmy + PieFed + mBin + nodeBB can intercommunicate at all is fantastic, even though yes there are some kinks remaining to be worked out:-).
My intention was to make light of the reasoning behind criticism of your post, while pointing out to Threadiverse users that once you get past that, the actual content is quite solid. So less "wall of text" than merely "odd-looking introduction". It's a good post!
And yeah the giant text looks weird, haha! 😂 Especially since at first it is a repeat of the title, but then goes into new territory after that. I do not know if there is anything that can be done about it though, except further code development on the side of all the myriad varieties of recipients of the message.
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macfranc
in reply to OpenStars • • •@OpenStars
Yes, I'd still get it, even if you didn't mention me. The problem arises when you reply to someone who replied to me: in that case, I might not receive the notification. Unfortunately (as often happens), the fault lies with Mastodon, not Lemmy/Piefed.
I also believe this statement. Since I've been an instance administrator (Friendica, Lemmy, NodeBB, and Mastodon Glitch-soc), I've always been concerned with how the Fediverse software integrates with each other and with spreading knowledge of the various platforms
My intention was to make light of the reasoning behind criticism of your post, while pointing out to Threadiverse users that once you get past that, the actual content is quite solid. So less “wall of text” than merely “odd-looking introduction”. It’s a good post!
Thank you for your feedback. It's somewhere between a press release and an informational post about the Fediverse. I'm only surprised because, usually, the criticisms about length come from Mastodon users, not Lemmy users...
Usually, the problem is solved at the user interface level. BBCode and Markdown have a certain number of standard levels for titles, and it's up to the final interpreter (the interface) to manage their display based on the tool (desktop browser, mobile browser, mobile app, etc.).
Repeating the title, on the other hand, is the best possible solution for integrating threads opened in the forumverse by microblogging users: Lemmy takes the first 200 characters of the first paragraph and converts them into a title, disabling formatting, links, and mentions. That data, however, is re-proposed at the beginning of the post text.
I understand there are some issues, but I don't see any better solution than this.
I should add that, unfortunately, Mastodon's recent implementation of quoted posts has made it difficult for Lemmy to manage opening posts, because Mastodon formats posts that quote another post as:
And therefore, the title of a Lemmy thread would become
"Re: fedilinkhttps"🤬informapirata
2026-01-27 13:56:01
OpenStars
in reply to macfranc • • •There are so many fascinating differences in how your comment reply here shows vs. not.
Like on all of lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/70448923 and lemmy.world/post/48069327 and even piefed.zip/comment/5630582 your most recent comments here do not show up at all, despite it having been sent 2 hours ago. Though somehow your earlier comments are visible, but not your latest ones?
And yet I see them on my instance. I am not sure why, or if your tagging my username specifically helped cause that to happen for this instance but somehow no other instances.
The formatting if I ask to "view markdown source" is messed up - everything is on a single line, and some formatting indicators are missing - but the traditional, regular display mode of the message is perfect.
Interrelation between the different platforms still needs improvements, but it is encouraging to see it get better over time.😀
FrederikNJS
2026-06-12 10:26:40
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Poliverso
in reply to OpenStars • • •I'm still @macfranc@poliversity.it
If I remember correctly, there was a problem in Lemmy that should be fixed with the upcoming 1.0 release and has already been fixed with the latest Piefed releases. This meant that third-level comments that didn't originate from Lemmy or Piefed weren't processed correctly by the platform.
They're out now, but I should compare them with the replies appended to the original post.
poliversity.it/@macfranc/11673…
macfranc
2026-06-12 10:13:54
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𝔻𝕚𝕖𝕘𝕠 🦝🧑🏻💻🍕 likes this.
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OpenStars
in reply to Poliverso • • •PieFed is running circles around Lemmy, even with the highly irresponsible code vulnerability disclosures awhile back.
As you know better than I, Friendica struggles mightily with scalability, Mastodon is slow to add new features especially those asked for many years, and Lemmy and Mbin are likewise exceedingly slow, whereas PieFed adds new MAJOR features quarterly even.
My hopes for the future of the entire Threadiverse lies with PieFed.
Poliverso
in reply to OpenStars • • •OpenStars
in reply to Poliverso • • •From what I can see, that is not a back-end restructuring but as far as a new architectural design it will purely affect the front-end UI. Which will begin to look somewhat more similar to PieFed, yet without coming anywhere close to what PieFed offers today, as opposed to what PieFed offered like a year ago. e.g. there will be no ability to hold polls (or to share those custom-built feeds?).
More relevant is that Lemmy 1.0 may take a year or so to become fully deployed across the Threadiverse, if past experience is any judge. The devs say to explicitly expect major breaking bugs and perhaps to avoid deployment in prod as a result. And ofc apps are going to need to catch up as well. This one being a breaking change may lead most older apps unable to connect to an instance that uses the newer software (unless I am misreading that part about the older backwards compatible API).
Lemmy.world in particular, which holds ~50% of Threadiverse users and >90% of the most highly-active communities (unfortunately for the aim of decentralization) is well-known for delaying deployment until the Lemmy code fixes such issues.
So a year from now Lemmy will begin to catch up to some of what PieFed had almost a year ago in the past already, and meanwhile I expect PieFed will not itself be standing still all that time... I am glad to see that Lemmy is still being actively worked on, truly I am, but also I find it hard to actually be excited about that pace, by comparison. Then again, any movement forward still counts, and improves the Fediverse as a whole, so by however much, it is still a good thing! 😀
Franc Mac
in reply to ggtdbz • — (Località predefinita della scheda settings | Impostazioni base | Località predefinita) •@ggtdbz There's something I don't understand: from the desktop and smartphone web interface (see image), it appears the display isn't that abnormal. Do you see it differently?
I also don't understand the reference to Mastodon: most Mastodon users write in plain text, while only users of certain forks can use formatted text. What's the problem that bothers you reading Mastodon users' comments?
@FrederikNJS

PS: I wrote from my Friendica account because the images sent by Mastodon are not always readable on Lemmy
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givesomefucks
in reply to FrederikNJS • • •Fediverse reshared this.
null
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macfranc
in reply to null • • •@null
Exactly: what I meant by "Finally" was "It's about time!"
But as I explained previously, I don't know English, but I'm happy to do machine translation and reverse translation to check for minimum readability. I might be missing the connotation of some expressions or adverbs.
givesomefucks
in reply to macfranc • • •Why are people upvoting this?
If OP used AI to "make" this post, obviously the app is gonna be slop too
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macfranc
in reply to givesomefucks • • •@givesomefucks I'm sorry, but you're making serious and false claims that do not honor either your reputation or your ability to recognize the synthetic origin of a text or code.
I wrote the post in Italian and first translated it into English (a language I don't know) using a machine translation system. I then did a back translation to make sure everything was at least comprehensible.
Regarding the app, if you had the necessary knowledge, you could take a look at the code to understand that the development wasn't done with vibe coding, but was done over the course of almost two years, integrating observations and addressing issues.
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givesomefucks
in reply to macfranc • • •So...
AI "wrote" this post, like I said...
And AI coded it to?
You're just saying you put more effort in instead of just vibes?
Even your comment sounds like AI, it disagrees but then immediately acknowledged everything I said was correct.
Even your fucking chat or knows I'm right, you just told it to say I'm wrong.
Why would anyone download this fucking slop?
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fizzle
in reply to givesomefucks • • •I share your concerns about AI slop but you're being a bit of a jerk.
Not everyone speaks English.
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macfranc
in reply to fizzle • • •@fizzle Given that machine translation systems have nothing to do with LLMs, I see you understand perfectly well that it's perfectly fine not to know English, just as it's perfectly fine to use machine translation systems.
However, I can't be concerned about those who manage to turn what should be a legitimate and justified concern about the proliferation of AI-generated texts into a complete obsession.
@givesomefucks
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Lorenzo
in reply to givesomefucks • •@givesomefucks wrote
AHAHAH! You're a freak of nature! You're a curious mythological character, half paranoid obsessive, half troll. 🤣
But maybe you're just a jealous little person... In that case, you're just salty because you've probably never even been able to program a washing machine.
@macfranc
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givesomefucks
in reply to Lorenzo • • •Chatbot accounts always crash out after running out of tokens...
Always turns into jr high insults after 2-3 replies in a row.
lokalhorst
in reply to givesomefucks • • •givesomefucks
in reply to lokalhorst • • •...
So you think OP honestly typed it themselves and just used standard AI formatting?
Bro...
AI may have wrote it first in Italian and then translated. But even if OP won't admit it, a human didn't write the post in any language.
They're just lying because they can't image it's obvious to some people
Giotras
in reply to macfranc • • •#DNFTT
@givesomefucks
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𝔻𝕚𝕖𝕘𝕠 🦝🧑🏻💻🍕
in reply to givesomefucks • •like this
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givesomefucks
in reply to 𝔻𝕚𝕖𝕘𝕠 🦝🧑🏻💻🍕 • • •Well...
The fact that so many zombie account are suddenly all active and super supportive of this ai slop?
Like, this is some of the worst astroturfing Ive ever seen.
Phantaloons
in reply to givesomefucks • • •givesomefucks
in reply to Phantaloons • • •OP saying it?
But if everyone stopped to investigate every piece of slop thrown in front of them, all they'd do all day is that.
This isn't an argument, if you think goalposts are moving it means you still don't understand any of it.
But most importantly, I don't really give a fuck if people end up understanding. Go for it bro, slop em up, get those steaks super sloppy and slick your hair back reaaaaaal nice.
Phantaloons
in reply to givesomefucks • • •I think you're extrapolating statements as admissions for the sake of your own benefit.
The OP being slop doesn't mean the original dev's code is.
...isn't an admission of vibecoding
So, let's back up.
github.com/LiveFastEatTrashRac…
There's the source, so you don't even have to go looking yourself, not that you were.
GitHub - LiveFastEatTrashRaccoon/RaccoonForLemmy: A Kotlin Multiplatform client for Lemmy
GitHubcannedtuna
in reply to givesomefucks • • •~~I mean, the 1h old account, who’s first comment was this post, chiming in about downloading the app wasn’t a giveaway?~~
Nvm it’s weird fediverse shit
Lorena Alsazia doesn't like this.
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macfranc
in reply to cannedtuna • • •Fediverse reshared this.
cannedtuna
in reply to macfranc • • •New account, was an hour old at the time I wrote the above, first thing they do is hop to this post to comment about downloading it.
There’s been a slew of posts recently about new apps, primarily on !selfhosted@lemmy.world that appear to be AI coded.
I did see you’ve got a number of people involved in this project so, maybe it’s unwarranted suspicion. My apologies if that’s the case. Just not a fan of AI.
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macfranc
in reply to cannedtuna • • •Fediverse reshared this.
macfranc
in reply to cannedtuna • • •...and as I explained here, it wasn't a "new" account, but rather one that was "intercepted" by Lemmy.world only when he replied to my post.
Franc Mac
2026-06-12 13:25:53
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Franc Mac
in reply to cannedtuna • •@cannedtuna I understand what you mean: you're referring to the post published by @Lorena Alsazia (here's Lemmy's post and here's the original on Friendica).
As you can see from the image, the user has been around for years (since August 8, 2021).
friendica.world/profile/lorena…
The date you find on Lemmy is because the user has likely never participated in a discussion on Lemmy.world.
lemmy.world/u/lorenaal@friendi…
I therefore ask you to amend your comment in light of the arguments I've presented.
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Lorena Alsazia
in reply to Franc Mac • • •Franc Mac
in reply to Lorena Alsazia • •@Lorena Alsazia no, tranquilla 😅 non ti sei mai iscritta su lemmy.world. Quella è solo la pagina del tuo account Friendica che viene riportata su un'altra istanza. Si tratta di una cosa normale, perché oggi sei "entrata" in un Thread ospitato in una community di lemmy.world e quindi è stato creato un "profilo fantasma" che serve all'istanza lemmy.world per gestire i tuoi post e le tue interazioni
@cannedtuna
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Lorena Alsazia
in reply to Franc Mac • • •cannedtuna
in reply to Franc Mac • • •Lorenzo
in reply to cannedtuna • •Lorena Alsazia likes this.
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Jerkface (any/all)
in reply to givesomefucks • • •Phantaloons
in reply to Jerkface (any/all) • • •Tbf, no one will,...
but still!
Phantaloons
in reply to macfranc • • •𝔻𝕚𝕖𝕘𝕠 🦝🧑🏻💻🍕 likes this.
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macfranc
in reply to Phantaloons • • •Perhaps rather than adding Orbot to the application, it would be better to create a RaccoOnion fork 😅
Phantaloons
in reply to macfranc • • •Any app can be aimed at by Orbot, but if orbot goes down or loses connection, the app doesn't discriminate.
XMPP apps adopt this from Conversations, there's a setting to only listen to the proxy/orbot only.
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macfranc
in reply to Phantaloons • • •Elena Brescacin
in reply to Phantaloons • • •("orbo" is a term in my dialect meaning "blind" and I'm blind myself)
If I ever consider experimenting agent development, orbot is taken and unusable! 🧑🦯 🙈
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macfranc
in reply to Elena Brescacin • • •@elettrona Orbot è un'applicazione fantastica che si può installare sui telefoni Android anche senza diritti di amministrazione e che in strada tutto il traffico su Rete Onion, la stessa di TOR Project
@Phantaloons
Elena Brescacin
in reply to macfranc • • •macfranc reshared this.
AV
in reply to Elena Brescacin • • •Elena Brescacin
in reply to AV • • •P03 Locke
in reply to macfranc • • •Fediverse reshared this.
macfranc
in reply to P03 Locke • • •Jokes aside, Mastodon is the elephant in the room of interoperability in the Fediverse.
P03 Locke
in reply to macfranc • • •Mastodon isn't the entirely of ActivityPub apps. Lemmy doesn't seem to work with any of the ActivityPub apps, and nobody is trying to fix that problem.
It's not a "Fediverse", if it's not federated everywhere.
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macfranc
in reply to P03 Locke • • •