What is App.net?
App.net was a microblogging and social networking service created in 2012 by Dalton Caldwell as an alternative to services like Twitter. Unlike Twitter, App.net charged a monthly subscription fee of $36 per year for users to access the service and focused on providing an ad-free, simple, chronological feed rather than relying on advertising revenue.
The service positioned itself as a platform focused on the core user experience and giving developers more access and control compared to other services. It provided real-time streams through an API that developers could use to build their own applications and clients to access App.net.
App.net failed to gain significant mainstream traction, though it did develop a small, loyal community of users. It officially shut down in March 2017, though the read-only data remains online through a third-party archive project. While not commercially viable itself in the end, App.net did influence some later design decisions in platforms like Twitter.