Following the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk in October 2022, Mastodon saw a surge in popularity, with over 70,000 new users joining in a single day, driving record-high app downloads. Users often search for "Mastodon download" to find the official app to join this new network.

Because Mastodon is open-source, there are over 20 third-party apps, such as Tusky (Android) or Metatext (iOS), which some users prefer for different interface experiences.

Users on one server can freely interact with users on another, similar to how email works.