“Unleashing Lyrak: The Ultimate Fusion of Twitter and the Fediverse”

Lyrak, a new rival to X, is taking the social media world by storm with its unique blend of Twitter and fediverse integration. Founded by Rishi Siva, Lyrak aims to stand out in the crowded field of competitors following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the text-based social network formerly known as Twitter.

With catchy names like Mastodon, Bluesky, Substack Notes, and Nostr, and new apps emerging such as Post, Spoutible, and now Lyrak, it’s clear that X has plenty of competition. But what makes Lyrak different? It promises “the best of what Twitter has to offer,” with its focus on real-time news and monetization options for creators, coupled with fediverse integration inspired by Instagram’s Threads.

If you’re not familiar with the fediverse, it’s an open-source social network powered by the ActivityPub protocol. While Mastodon is currently the most well-known federated social app, even Meta (formerly known as Facebook) has taken notice of the trend and incorporated ActivityPub into its latest social network, Threads.

According to the Lyrak team, they plan to integrate with ActivityPub in the coming months. This means that Lyrak users will be able to connect with a wider audience on other federated social networks, like Mastodon and others.

The inspiration for the name “Lyrak” comes from the lead character in the popular TV show “His Dark Materials” – Lyra – who discovers new worlds. In the same way, Lyrak is striving to build something better. Siva explains, “I came up with the idea after helping small businesses set up websites to make money and attract customers online. Our mission is to help users better monetize their content and skills on the web, and our lower fees and revenue sharing with creators support this goal.”

By comparison, X does not publicly disclose its earnings, which can vary based on factors such as post type, demographics, geography, and subscriber status. Only Verified users (paid subscribers) are eligible to earn revenue from ads on X’s platform.

However, Siva is not satisfied with the direction X is heading and its impact on creators. He laments the changes that have occurred since Musk took over as owner, noting “It was disappointing to see that all the tech leaders I admire ignored this and continue to use Twitter (X).” He also points out the issues surrounding far-right groups and antisemitic content on X’s platform.

Meanwhile, Siva sees real-time news as a key feature that keeps users hooked on X despite its changes. In comparison, he describes Threads as “basically a text version of Instagram,” with a lack of focus on real-time news outside of sports. Lyrak aims to fill this gap in the market.

Siva believes that Mastodon and Bluesky may ultimately prove too complicated for the average user, but Lyrak’s federated integrations could bridge the gap between these networks. While Bluesky uses a different protocol than Mastodon, work is ongoing to build bridges between the two.

Initially, Lyrak will target journalists to join the network, hoping to establish itself as a real-time news app. To entice them, Lyrak will allow Verified journalists to share their content with users’ home feeds based on their interests. It will also offer tools to send notifications to users who regularly click on their links. This feature is similar to what Artifact offered (which has since shut down), alerting users to new articles from reporters and writers they followed.

The startup also plans to attract creators who sell digital products, with tailored tools launching in May. These creators will be able to offer subscriptions to their followers and collect tips. AI tools, like an answer engine and user-generated AI characters, are also in the works for a May release.

To generate revenue, Lyrak will use ads like X, but also take a 10% cut from paid posts, subscriptions, tips, digital products, and other AI features over time. To avoid paying app store fees, users can deposit funds on Lyrak’s website and use them to pay creators. In-app purchases will incur Apple’s 30% fee.

Another feature in the works, borrowed from sites like Reddit, is a reputation score that reflects a user’s value to the community through their comments, reposts, likes, and invitations. This score will be combined with AI moderation and human moderators to keep the app safe.

Siva shares his excitement for Lyrak’s future plans, saying “After our initial launch and a couple of weeks of bug fixes, we plan to regularly release new features. Being a startup building a social app gives us a fresh perspective and allows us to innovate and create features that truly benefit our users.”

The team behind Lyrak consists of five members, most of whom are based in London, with the fifth soon joining the team in the same location. The startup is currently self-funded and available for download on iOS.