Flashbulb — An Android media app for the fediverse

Screenshot of an Android app. 'Flashbulb' in the app bar name.
A lightbulb logo before a text field named 'Instance URL'.
The text 'selfie.army' is filled in.
A sign in button after the text field.

Connect to any Mastodon, Pleroma, or PixelFed instance.

Animation of an Android app.
App bar and floating action button disappear as it scrolls.
A sensitive image is covered. Pressing it shows it: a penguin holding a
sign that reads 'hooray'.
Swiping right shows another image from the same post: a raven holding a
flag that reads 'hooray for today' in its beak.
Swiping left shows the first image.
After five seconds the image is covered again.
Scroll down to reveal the next post.
An image with two dots under it. The first dot is highlighted.
The image is a pig shouting 'yay' to the skies. — Browse the photos, GIFs, and videos of your home timeline, with sensitive image support.

Animation of an Android app.
First an image that reads 'woot woot'. The heart icon after it starts
empty, then has a pulse, then goes solid.
Scroll up, a cartoon of two women talking. After it an icon of a circle
formed from two arrows. It spins, and turns into a series of arrows
pointing outward.
Scroll up, a cartoon of a hot dog with arms and legs. After it three
dots. A menu appears from the dots, and 'Report' is selected. Another
screen prompts for a comment; we type 'No hot dogs!' and press submit.
This brings us back to the feed and a message slides up that reads
'Thank you for the report'. — Boost, fav, report, block, and mute right from the media feed.

Animation of an Android app.
Scroll up to reveal the floating action button.
Press it and we are in the camera app. Take a picture.
We are prompted to describe it. Enter 'couch on the left. cat on the
right. a view of nothing in between.'. Press 'Next'.
We see a screen with the thumbnail next to the description. Press the
floating action button again. Move the camera, take a picture.
Enter the description 'a mug of hot chocolate'. Press 'Next'.
See both thumbnails and descriptions, one after the next. Press 'Share'.
The first image is visible with two dots after; the first dot is
highlighted.
After it we are prompted for content warning, image sensitivity, a
caption, and post visibility.
We enter 'This is my life now'.
We press the globe; a prompt appears with 'public', 'unlisted',
'private', 'direct' as options.
We select 'unlisted'. The prompt closes and the globe turns into an
open lock.
We press 'Share' and go back to our feed. — Post your photos (with full descriptions) into an album, with a caption and full sensitivity support.

Get it

Flashbulb is now in beta, and only available for Android (versions Ice Cream to Pie). Download the APK now to try it out. Coming to F-Droid soon!

Install version 20200426.001 now.

Quick answers

We support Mastodon and anything that implements the Mastodon client API. That includes Pleroma and PixelFed.

We do not support account creation from within the app. You must find an instance and sign up there first.

We currently have poor interaction with the Firefox Android browser after adding a new account. Open the app again and it will work.

The home timeline is ordered by date posted, newest first.

Mastodon limits the timeline to 300 statuses total, including non-media.

Flashbulb is for you

Flashbulb is Free Software. We want your feature requests and bug reports.

Submit feature requests and bug reports to the Flashbulb issue tracker on GitLab. You will need a GitLab account to do this.

All patches should be submitted as a merge request on the Flashbulb GitLab project. No patch is too small. Documentation patches are loved.

All interaction with the Flashbulb development community is governed by our code of conduct. Many more details can be found in our contributing guide. Please see our security guide if your bug report concerns a security risk.

Follow @Flashbulb@fosstodon.org for announcements (plus great pictures for your timeline).