Earlier this year, my X subscription was up for renewal, and I made the decision to give up the blue tick. I’d like to say it was for some moralistic high ground reason, but it was simply that I could do with the money... Besides, I honestly felt my reach and engagement had deteriorated rather than improved as promised. This therefore presented a prime opportunity to see just how worse it could be by no longer being verified.

Truth be told, I think its the same.. possibly a little better??

However I will say the volume of ads, memes and viral posts I’m now subjected to is through the roof - the “For You” tab could not be any further from it. Its a huge turn off generally and I find myself using the platform less and less.

Meanwhile, Warpcast has rebranded back to Farcaster, and recently they introduced “Mini Apps” alongside an in-app wallet. It might be the coolest development in social media lately in a long time.

You could say that Farcaster Frames walked so that Mini Apps could run.

Interacting with mini apps opens a mini window on the Farcaster app or Desktop site, keeping you within the main Farcaster application but allowing you to carry out a variety of activities, from visiting sites like Rodeo, Hypersub, reading articles on Paragraph, browsing images and video on the platform in an Instagram like grid, playing games, tipping fellow users, earning rewards, listening to podcasts, watching shows, and even livestreaming.

It really feels like Mini Apps are what the devs were hoping Frames could become. A fuller, more fleshed-out Farcaster ecosystem.

Currently my favourite mini apps are -

Pods - an on-chain podcast platform with all shows available to be both heard and collected.

Dash - an app which collates videos posted on the Farcaster platform and presents them in a Shorts / TikTok like interface.

Duels - made by the team behind Remx, each week their artists’ work is pitted head to head for people to vote on and earn rewards.

Fargallery - a great lightweight mini app that presents all posted images in an Instagram style grid.

Paragraph - A very clean, eye catching mini app of the site, with posted articles available to read right there without leaving Farcaster.

In fact, the Paragraph app is so good, its encouraged me to start writing and cross-posting here again too. Having articles available to read on demand at the click of a button within a social media platform has big potential for exposure and reach, and is so worth the opportunity to try out.

Dan | Digitalgyoza is a lighting designer and digital AI artist based in the UK, who writes about Art, Technology, Web3, Culture and Blockchain.

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