Show HN: Oliphaunt – a native macOS Mastodon client built with AppKit
apps.apple.comI’ve just released Oliphaunt, a Mastodon client built specifically for macOS.
If you’re familiar with X (Twitter) or Bluesky, Mastodon will feel immediately recognisable. It’s a federated social network built on the ActivityPub protocol, where independent servers (“instances”) interoperate while remaining decentralised.
The motivation behind this project was fairly simple: I wanted a Mastodon client that behaves like a well-behaved macOS application.
Many desktop apps today are effectively scaled-up mobile interfaces or cross-platform ports. They can work well, but they often ignore macOS conventions. My goal was to build something that feels like a native citizen of the platform.
Oliphaunt focuses heavily on macOS design principles:
- built with system-native UI components (AppKit with some SwiftUI)
- follows macOS design language and interface idioms
- supports proper multi-window workflows
- keyboard shortcuts
- respects macOS interaction patterns rather than reinventing them
A lot of the work went into the details that make Mac software feel “right”: window behaviour, menus, keyboard navigation, sidebar structure and integration with system features.
The goal isn’t to introduce a new interface paradigm but to adopt the conventions Mac users already understand.
If you’re a Mastodon user or someone who appreciates carefully built native Mac software, I’d love to hear your feedback.
App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/app/id6745527185 Sorry... it's DOA for me. Just installed it, and I can't even open it. Immediately crashes on open. Repeatedly. https://gist.github.com/akulbe/26b71df4a3fd069dd71824f000c9a... OP - I don't know if there's anything else I can do to assist, other than the bug report output I put in the gist, but let me know. I'm happy to help. Thanks for the crash report! It's the first time I have ever received it on GitHub gist. I expect it to appear in Xcode Organiser. Could you please tell me about your desktop environment? Which macOS OS are you using? That's all at the very bottom of the crash report.