Crystal: Apple TV App for Mastodon

Crystal is a client for the Mastodon social network that provides a relaxing way to discover art and photography shared on the Fediverse. Crystal helps you find and organize hashtags, and lets you view images posted to your favorite hashtags as a beautiful slideshow on the big screen.

Crystal is exclusive to Apple TV and available only from the App Store on Apple TV.

Key Features

Find photos and art by searching for your interests, from trending topics on your Mastodon server, or from hashtags you already follow with your Mastodon account.
Play an automatically updating slideshow of images posted using a chosen hashtag, with new images queued as they are posted.
A swipe on the Apple TV remote shows the text and other details of a post, with quick access to the creator’s profile and related hashtags.
Save a collection of hashtags to keep up with the latest content and come back to them easily.

Who is Crystal for?

For people new to Mastodon, Crystal is a pleasant, low-effort way to discover what’s happening across Mastodon, Pixelfed, and the rest of the connected social media servers in the Fediverse.

Established or returning Mastodon users will find a new way to branch out and discover photography and art from creators that they might not have been aware of, or maybe gain a deeper appreciation of their favorites than they would from scrolling through a timeline on a small screen.

About the Developer

I’m Dale Price, an independent developer from Houston, Texas. I developed Crystal because I wanted a relaxing way to enjoy the various photography and art hashtags that are popular on the fediverse, like #Bloomscrolling, #BelieveInFilm, and #NaturePhotography. I also like to keep an eye on the daily photo themes like #WaterfallWednesday, #Caturday, #Mondog, and so on.

Fact Sheet

Pricing

Crystal costs $9.99 (USD, international pricing varies).

Promo codes available upon request. TestFlight link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/NKpHVXt3

Availability

Crystal released Jan 28, 2025 and is available on the App Store on Apple TV. Crystal supports Apple TV devices running tvOS 17 and later.

Compatibility

Crystal works with any up-to-date Mastodon server. Crystal works best for users who sign in to their Mastodon account in the app, but allows users to browse and view publicly available content on the flagship Mastodon server, mastodon.social, without requiring an account.

At launch, Crystal only officially supports Mastodon servers. It may be possible to use the app with other Fediverse platforms such as Pixelfed, but compatibility with non-Mastodon servers is not guaranteed. Improved compatibility with more Fediverse platforms (such as Pixelfed, GoToSocial, etc.) is planned for a later release.

Because Mastodon uses the ActivityPub protocol, Mastodon users can see and interact with users and content from other servers in the Fediverse, including other Mastodon servers, Pixelfed servers, and more.