Twitter alternative Pebble (previously T2 Social) shuts down amidst intense competition
Pebble.is, previously known as T2 and once a competitor to X, has declared its shutdown due to intense competition in the social media sector. The app, which announced a complete rebranding and redesign just about 5 weeks ago, has revealed that despite Twitter's recent controversial policies under the leadership of Elon Musk and the growing user demand for a viable option, it had struggled to compete against other emerging alternatives, such as Mastodon, Bluesky, Hive Social, Spoutible, Post News, and the newest player in the scene, Threads. The challenge of staying relevant in this competitive market has been more challenging than initially expected.
Originally, Pebble had a decent user retention rate, attracting users through invitations and media coverage. The platform focused heavily on trust, safety, and moderation, they even allow veriefied X users to keep their checkmarks, but this strategy did not result in significant growth, especially considering that it didn't offer anything radically different from what was already seen on X. The decision to close the platform is due to a combination of factors including competition, lack of a mobile app, branding issues, and perhaps creating an overly safe environment.
Although early users can export their Pebble archive, the company will not be directing users to other social networks. However, of course, we recommend checking Pebble's app page to discover the best available alternatives. The last day for posting on Pebble is November 1, so you still have a few days to bid farewell.
External links
- 📢 Announcement from the Pebble Team: We have some sad news to share today. As of November 1, 2023, Pebble will be shutting downGabor Cselle on Pebble • Official source
- Twitter clone Pebble is shutting down just five weeks after a rebrandEngadget
- Pebble, the Twitter alternative previously known as T2, is shutting downTechCrunch
- Pebble, the Twitter/X alternative formerly known as T2, is officially shutting downInnovation Village
Comments
A competitor to Twitter? Lets be honest there hasn't been any other platform that has come close or will ever come close to the big social media platforms. There are many alternatives to Twitter but non of them are competition to Twitter either under the previous left or current right wing leadership. Same with Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, plenty of alternative but no competition.
Technically, the only reason for this is that people (in general) prefer convenience over control and predetermined outcomes over freedom of choice.
So, it isn't that the big social platforms are doing so much better on the features or technical side, they just market themselves way better and were the ones who originally pushed social media forward.
So, because of those reasons, most users don't feel the need for change because they have been conditioned to want to remain where they started.
As a non-supporting example: I didn't want an IG account when they launched because I already had FB. Years later, I got one and decided I no longer wanted an FB account.
imo mastodon in the only true alt to twitter/x
Seems they didn't think refactoring for ActivityPub would be worth it.