Loops is a federated, open-source TikTok

this is like using an "ethically produced" brick to smash your foot with; The method of manufacturing the brick isn't the problem.

These formats are designed for a specific purpose; maximizing engagement to extract value.

so we've remove the incentive to extract value but we leave the predatory design that maximize engagement? You working in a different milieu but you are bringing the worst parts of the previous milieu along for the ride.

Please, anybody working on this kind of alternative social platform, we need to rethink how we interact online; decentralization leaves the worst parts of modern social media completely unaddressed.

Good that they have a web version.

But the most basic functionality of going to the next video is only available via scroll (no keyboard arrow down?) and it has a really long animation and delay?

Just feels awful to use.

I feel if you wanna win in this space, especially with people who prefer more "free" platforms, then the non-app version should be a bigger priority IMO.

This form of content is bad regardless of platform.

I want this to be succesful so much, but almost nothing works in the mobile app

Needed 2 tries to sign up, and uploading a video from the camera roll failed (5-7 tries)

Great to see this progressing. Tried it out just now after last testing it over 6 months ago.

I’d say the main “feature” id want to see added is a mandatory field on upload to tick if it’s AI content. Then a tag on videos that are Ai and at the account level to filter out AI content.

Otherwise it’s going to be a slops fest.

how good is the For You feed? the tiktok secret sauce is the creepy algorithm, who's clamoring for "crack but not addictive?"

This is actually pretty exciting. Excited to see how this turns out. But I am wondering how to keep it financially possible to operate the platform. Also, 95+% of the users probably don't care that much about censorship and privacy enough to switch platform.

I didn't deep dive into this, but just for context and comparison, here are some other tools which are building TikTok like tools on Bluesky-

https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/01/here-are-the-apps-battling...

"Everything you love about short-video"

Ha

haha

the format isn't inherently bad, it's the algorithm optimizing for engagement over everything else that's the problem. short video is actually great for tutorials, explanations, behind-the-scenes stuff. i make AI-generated video content and the short form works well for documentary-style clips where you're mixing stills with selective animation.

the real question is whether federation changes the incentive structure enough. if the recommendation algo is still optimized for watch time, you just get tiktok with extra steps. if instances can tune their own ranking, that's actually interesting.

Recently released on the Appstore https://blog.joinloops.org/loops-is-now-on-the-app-store/

I can appreciate the effort, but the UI is indistinguishable from tiktok.

I like the app but it really needs a mute function (ideally an option by default).

Congrats. All that remains now is spending $$$ on some D-level celebs to lure in the users...

It's interesting, I doubt it'll ever be successful.

Look, the reason a lot of content makes it's way to Youtube, tiktok, and twitter, etc is because the creators can earn money from the platform. On youtube and tiktok, you can send gifts to your favorite creator. That incentivizes creators to create content.

loops will never have that feature. It's really hard to legally distribute money like that. But further, the decentralized nature of it means that you'll never know if your funds ends up in your creator's account or the instant account.

Without any sort of path to make money, the only content on the platform will be works of passion. Maybe that's a good thing, but it means these people will ultimately burn out.

But on the plus side, it means you probably won't end up with an endless stream of AI slop.

For 20+ years World of Warcraft has dominated the MMORPG genre. There have been a host of challengers and they've all miserably failed. In fact, there have only been a handful of successes (eg UO, EQ, FF14).

And what do almost all of these challengers have in common? Some version of "the PvP is going to be amazing". Why do these companies like PVP? Because it's essentially user-generated content. It increases time spent in game without having to create content, which is expensive.

Thing is, players of this genre don't want PVP. Even in WoW, I'd be surprised if 10% of the playerbase actively engages in PVP activity. So, by focusing on PVP, you're actually cut your potential market by 90%. Before you've written a single line of code or created any artwork. Put another way, you're spending valuable development effort on features only a tiny minority of players care about or even want.

I'm reminded of this whenever somebody on HN talks about federation. The only people who care about federation are... other people on HN. It does literally nothing for users. It greatly complicates the implementation. The last successes of federation are POTS and Email. It's quite literally never succeeded since. And the problems with federation that POTS and Email continue to have to this day should be an object lesson in why it's a bad idea.

Choosing federation from the start is choosing to lose. I'm sorry but it's true.

two hardest problems for a platform like this.

1. users and initial flywheel. 2. content moderation.

Open source meth is still bad in absolute terms even if it’s better than the alternative meth

"Open-source TikTok" is like reading "open source slot machine". Not something you should be proud of, no matter how much you sugarcoat it with "All the fun of short-form video, none of the corporate control"

There have already been some TikTok alternatives that have become popular after it got bought by the Trump / Oracle / Silver Lake group of buyers.

One alternative I’ve heard of that apparently became popular is Skylight: https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/26/tiktok-alternative-skyligh...

We do not need another tiktok.

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