Want to keep up with what everyone’s talking about on alternative social media sites like Bluesky and Mastodon, but don’t have time to constantly scroll through their respective apps?
A newly launched link aggregation service called Sill may be able to help.
The service is similar to the older startup Nuzzel, which was ultimately acquired by Twitter as part of its deal for Scroll in 2021, then integrated into Twitter’s app. Popular with news junkies, Nuzzel helped users keep track of what everyone on Twitter was talking about, reading, and resharing that day. The feature lives on inside of Elon Musk’s X app as “Top Articles,” which is available to X’s Premium subscribers.
Sill is now offering the same sort of functionality, but for the Twitter/X alternatives that are embracing open protocols, like Mastodon and Bluesky. Part of the open social web, the two social platforms promote the idea of decentralized social media as a counterbalance to apps run by centralized authorities like X and Meta. However, Mastodon and Bluesky rely on different protocols and infrastructure. Mastodon is part of the fediverse, powered by ActivityPub, while Bluesky is building its own AT Protocol.
The service’s launch comes at the same time as X appears to be deprioritizing links within its own app, per a post from X owner Elon Musk. He suggested that links should be added to replies instead, in response to a complaint about the change by Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham.
To get started with Sill, you’ll first connect your Bluesky and Mastodon accounts to the new service.
The app’s developer Tyler Fisher says Sill uses Bluesky’s new OAuth for AT Protocol instead of app passwords, which means Sill won’t have access to your password directly. Once connected, you’ll be able to see the most shared links among those you follow across the two services. You can also opt-in to receive a daily email that lists all 10 of the most popular links in your network.
Link popularity is determined by the number of unique accounts that share a URL across your social apps, Fisher explains, including those that may have reposted the link (similar to a retweet). Sill aggregates those links and shows you what people are saying about them. You can also further curate your links by muting phrases, domains, and accounts that you don’t want to see included, Fisher noted in a blog post announcing Sill’s launch last week.
Previously CTO at the nonprofit newsroom The 19th and a software engineer at The Washington Post, Sill’s creator has experience building technology for the news ecosystem. He says Sill will remain an open source project so people can self-host their own version, but he will later introduce paid plans that will offer advanced features to sustain the app. These may include features like support for custom lists or feeds, analytics, support for multiple accounts, or maybe native apps.
Sill’s launch was first spotted by Apple news site Six Colors and NiemanLab, which focuses on journalism in the digital age. Noted the latter, Sill had around 300 people in its private beta ahead of the public beta launch. It’s now open to anyone.
Be aware that as a beta project, Sill may have performance issues and bugs. (It took us a few tries to get our initial sign-up through, for instance, and Sill warned that Bluesky could be down even when the app was working.) Those issues will improve over time as Sill moves towards a general release.