Farcaster is experiencing a Cambrian explosion of creativity, utility & innovative variety with the applications being built on (and by) its ecosystem. As a sufficiently decentralised social network the opportunities for developers to create unique experiences and tools for its growing user base have quickly accelerated its functionality. It is also exponentially growing more interesting/fun to engage with a high calibre of engaged builders that are experimenting with whats possible.
10
I went down the rabbit hole with most apps on the network available from April 3rd 2023 to April 7th 2023, starting with this Github app list by a16z.
Farcaster Applications
What: Search all casts (posts) for keywords, filterable by popularity & caster
How: web application written in Python using the Flask web framework
UX/UI: purple favicon, purple branding juxtaposed against white text
Feel: Dynamic, the content is searchable in real time
Built By: Greg Skriloff, on farcaster @greg / on twitter @gregskril
What: Highlighting the best apps and builders in the Farcaster community
How: web application written in typescript (compiles to plain JavaScript code). Users can add and update apps themselves in Github by editing the apps.json file. Follow the same structure as the previous apps, open a pull request, and once merged it will be automatically added and deployed
UX/UI: White background, with blue buttons
Feel: Static, the apps here don’t change or update depending on new entries
Built By: Tiago, on farcaster @alvesjtiago
What: Creates feeds (coves) based on interests (e.g. books, podcasts etc)
How: keyword search function linked up to farcaster api
UX/UI: white backdrop, pink/black/purple buttons, rankings e.g. trending & new
Feel: Real time updates, notifications pulled in automatically from Farcaster
Built By: david@discove.app / @df Farcaster / @davidvfurlong twitter
Feedback: When I try scroll down a fair bit it snaps me back up to the original search query (and results) preventing you going too far down through older content
https://alertcaster.xyz (waitlist)
What: follow topics, discover conversations on Farcaster via alerts
How: Alertcaster Bot replies to matching cast with 'cc @yourusername'
UX/UI: simple landing page, purple and white (waiting list)
Feel: Notifications of keyword matches inside Farcaster
Built By: Andy, @andyjagoe
What: Create an allowlist of your Farcaster followers
How: Type in farcaster username to populate sheet of wallet addresses
UX/UI: simple purple, white, black interface, easy download list & merkle tree
Feel: Efficient, easy add on is a list of things followers are allowlisted for
Built By: Greg Skriloff, farcaster @greg / twitter @gregskril
What: Way to share and discover new projects in Web3.
How: tagging @launch in a cast creates an editable producthunt-esque event
UX/UI: simple, white background, purple text
Feel: Mintable launch pass (free) for access, reddit style boards of info
Built By: farcaster @pugson / on farcaster @jayme / on twitter @jaymehoffman
What: RSS feed for Farcaster based on username
How: reader checks for updates that are displayed on a feed list / inbox
UX/UI: simple white background, orange text, textbox
Feel: Ports into telegram, feedly, or you can copy RSS / Web Feed URL
Built By: Shawki Sukkar, on farcaster @shawki / on twitter @shawkisukkar
What: indexes all images posted by Farcaster users in an Instagram-like feed
How: built on Next.js
UX/UI: simple interface and feed of images, no interactivity, read only
Feel: a little dry, cooler if organised around popularity/on-chain/tags/keywords
Built By: Zach Terrell, on farcaster @zachterrell / on twitter @zachterrell57
What: way to save casts, share collections, & explore topics on Farcaster
How: built with Ruby on Rails and Postgresql. It uses Graphql and React for the Frontend of the admin dashboard and is hosted on Render. The casts are indexed using Tinybird. The explore and public pages are built with Next.js hosted on Vercel, consuming Pincaster API
UX/UI: a little hard to get started for a noob that’s never used shortcuts
Feel: empty till set up, needs vid tutorial + example of what success looks like
Built By: Carlos Matallín, on farcaster / on twitter @matallo
What: rich media previews of casts sharable on Twitter, Telegram, etc
How: Next.js and React, as well as Supabase
UX/UI: white & purple theme, links include username, images + cast snippets
Feel: love the build in public angle & minimum zeitgeist product ethos (MZP)
Built By: Michael Pfister, on farcaster @pfista
Feedback: When I load a sharecaster into medium or paragraph.xyz the textbox that it wraps the content is great but has the potential to evolve and come to life more.
What: Communities platform built on Farcaster + BEBverse protocol
How: Built on top of Beb (https://beb.xyz/) as a subdomain
UX/UI: dark/black with purple buttons
Feel: Has been shut-down temporarily, @cryptojcdenton to revive soon
Built By: JC Denton, on farcaster @jc @beb
What: Map view of the farcaster community (akin to little atlas)
How: Seems you need to mint your location?
UX/UI: Map aligned to location & interests (love) e.g. tennis
Feel: Stopped updating circa 3 months ago? IRL POAP link would be cool
Built By: dimalaba.eth, on farcaster @dmlb
What: Easily link to Farcaster profiles in-app/browser e.g. fcast.me/papa
How: linked into apple maps (the legal button goes to their T&Cs)
UX/UI: clear explanation, MZP, clean
Feel: Does what is says on the tin, no frills, job done
Built By: clay, on farcaster @clayallsopp
https://screenshot-essay-caster.vercel.app
What: Read screenshot essays (alt to twitter threads) posted on Farcaster.
How: TypeScript, JavaScript, CSS, Next.js
UX/UI: Dark background, purple text, red favicon,
Feel: mention "screenshotessay" in cast, indexer updates every thirty mins
Built By: Yash, yashkarthik.eth, on farcaster @yashkarthik
What: Discover top links discussed on Farcaster.
How: Currently migrating to the new Farcaster contracts
UX/UI: Currently migrating to the new Farcaster contracts
Feel: Currently migrating to the new Farcaster contracts
Built By: Looks like it's Katsuya - farcaster @kn ?!
What: cluster of tiny blogs (mobile only)
How: needs mobile number to access + invites for waitlist to write
UX/UI: really clean, fixed number of collectible orbs (kudos) for posts
Feel: Bitesize fully formed thoughts
Built By: on farcaster @ace @peter / on twitter @alexyoungkwon @pkayfire
What: Curated content feed of Farcaster, Lens, Mirror, NFTs, Twitter, etc
How: JavaScript TypeScript Go CSS Swift
UX/UI: Light white/grey tones (darkmode available): aggregator interface
Feel: Personalisation not yet locked in (wide berth of stuff across many chains/platforms it doesn’t seem to work together), cool idea might be to look at NFT/POAPs in my wallet and serve up related content e.g. for me this would be music and podcasts for instance
Built By: nir.th, on farcaster @nir / on twitter @nir_III
What: Social & events Calendar built on Farcaster
How: mention @eventcaster in farcaster & its automatically added
UX/UI: White background, purple font + favicon
Feel: Easy to use + feature/support rich: calendar, newsletter, guide, etc
Built By: Matthew, on farcaster @matthew & Tiago, on farcaster @alvesjtiago
What: Track trends associated with your wallet/account
How: JavaScript; TypeScript; CSS; Shell
UX/UI: Updated every 24hrs with trending words, profile + cast counts
Feel: Unclear if this is for me personally or for the ecosystem at large, lots of potential here to toggle what time window it covers & monitor the kinds of music, writing, products, profiles etc are popular/trending e.g. What Blur and Gem/Openseapro are to NFTs, Trendcaster is to social graphs
Built By: Madhur Shrimal 🔵, on farcaster @madhur
https://castalytics.farcase.xyz
What: Analytics of popular casts + tracking activity on farcaster
How: NFT gated API (farlock)
UX/UI: white backdrop; black/orange/green charts, blue text/tables, varied!
Feel: quirky categories e.g. most replied to, mentioned, commented on users
Built By: Tiago, on farcaster @alvesjtiago
What: a list of feature or product requests from the Farcaster community
How: mention “RequestCaster” or “Request” in a cast (indexed every 30min)
UX/UI: wonderful, white background, purple/black text, clear use case & info
Feel: Smooth, everything you need on one page, frictionless, MZP
Built By: Jack Yeh, on farcaster @jacky / on twitter @jckyeh
What: “Find a new Farcaster to follow on every refresh” (discovery)
How: “We're currently down, but we'll be back soon!”
UX/UI: “We're currently down, but we'll be back soon!”
Feel: “We're currently down, but we'll be back soon!”
Built By: Cameron Armstrong, on farcaster @cameron
What: Stats & graphs to analyze protocol-level trends across Farcaster
How: N/A built on private Github repository
UX/UI: Seamless, compact, dark background with white & purple text
Feel: cool random metrics e.g. Market Cap → "Buying Power" which removes illiquid/hard to evaluate NFTs and focuseson liquid ETH + ERC20s to determine the economic power & influence of the network.
Built By: Greg Skriloff, on farcaster @greg and Zach Terrell, on farcaster @zachterrell
What: experimental way to explore messages (casts) on Farcaster
How: Static frontend, client-side fetching page; auto generated REST API backend accepting SQL queries via ROAPI hosted on Replit.
UX/UI: direct and straight to the point, could be warmer, white back, black text
Feel: super sparse, LOVE the “i’m feeling lazy” option to get noobs started
Built By: Charlie Harrington, on both farcaster & twitter @whatrocks
What: telegram groups of farcaster users demarcated by city
How: TypeScript, SCSS, JavaScript, React (Next.js) deployed on Vercel
UX/UI: clean, crisp, white background, flag favicons, purple logo
Feel: simple, uncluttered, could imagine overlap & integration with discove’s “coves”, farcarte and fcast maps
Built By: Matthew, on farcaster @matthew
https://raycast.com/gregskril/searchcaster
What: Not farcaster specific: extension highly recommended by builders
How: Basically ChatGPT, for more conversational coding help
UX/UI: chrome extension, downloadable application
Feel: well funded
Built By: Petr Nikolaev @pitnikola & Thomas Paul Mann @thomaspaulmann [twitter @’s]
What: Web3 livestreaming platform
How: Non-Fungible Clips for decentralized communities
UX/UI: Colourful rainbow aesthetic landing page, twitch-esque styling
Feel: Vibrant, fun, can pay in creator token to control stream + chat
Built By: Brian Guan (br1an.eth) - on twitter @bdguan / on farcaster @briang and Grace White, 0eggs.eth on farcaster @graceon / on twitter @gracewhiteguan
What: Nouns-style DAO focused on supporting FC
How: goal to proliferate and expand the Farcaster protocol/ecosystem
UX/UI: classic characteristic nouns font, daily mint (purple square NFT), treasury with proposals/initiatives that are positive sum
Feel: welcoming
Built By: community
What: DAO experience that combines governance with socials
How: advanced features (e.g. voting, mobile app) only available to beta testers currently
UX/UI: white background, blue/green/red/black detailing,
Feel: playful, experimental, evolving
Built By: Bill Zheng billzh.eth @billzh and @16 (message to become a tester)
What: Cast anonymously to Farcaster
How: Connect wallet, verify Farcaster access, cast using burner wallet
UX/UI: Deep purple and dark background with white font
Feel: CIA/SPY vibe, love it! Great examples + ZK badges with SealCred
Built By: @borodutch
What: Create, publish and share web3-native blogs & newsletters
How: turns subscribers into members via NFTs (audience ownership & community) to supercharge growth & earning potential
UX/UI: intuitive, works well, easy to publish off and on chain + build subscriber base
Feel: not dissimilar from medium or mirror except lots more web3 functionality & experimentation
Built By: Colin Armstrong @colin
What: Find casts on different topics according to tags
How: TypeScript, CSS, JavaScript, React (Next.js) deployed on Vercel
UX/UI: different shades of purple background with black text + pfp’s; a little buggy with sometimes slower loads & crashes as it’s so new!
Feel: extension of Searchcaster and farcaster-indexer
Built By: Satyajeet Pal, farcaster @pal twitter @tripalthreat (“with 🟪 “: possibly means purple DAO funded)
What: Airstack APIs enabling data-awareness + interoperability across web3
How: web3 ecosystem integrations, public marketplace of queries and APIs
UX/UI: in private developer beta with form for access
Feel: slightly foreboding, amazing diversity in the team, excitable
Built By: Jason Goldberg @betashop + team
What: App with read/write capabilities (on iOS, Android & desktop/browser)
How: A showcase of airstack tech pulling in data from multiple API’s
UX/UI: Darkmode: deep purple theme. Lightmode: white back, purple
Feel: Incredible features e.g. cast with photos/GIFS + longcast.jam.so/jjIT58
Built By: Jason Goldberg @betashop and Airstack with True Sparrow.
Go hard the first 3 days, you'll get recasted by the welcome bot for better exposure.
Thoughts
It's incredible that an app like Jam, which just launched, could feasibly supplant the Warpcast application built by the founding team to explore farcaster. That speaks to the capacity for the developer community here to shape the experience in delightful, unconventional, ways.
This Vitalik take about Farcaster being "too polite" was fascinating too as it speaks to a distinct differentiator relative to twitter. The only way to participate in the ecosystem is to be invited and vouched for (I messaged @dwr requesting access, shared some content, and was swiftly in).
The a16z connection here is a sound match up with insights gleaned from investments like clubhouse that are directly applicable. Having held stock in many historically important companies (such as Facebook, Groupon, Twitter, and Zynga) they are playing very close attention to social .
On Collaboration
The overlap between Citycaster’s city-based Telegram groups, Discove’s interest-based feeds (coves), and Farcarte’s map view exemplifies the potential for collaboration and integration between Farcaster community-built applications which seek to service similar needs. Through these tools users are able to seamlessly discover and connect with like-minded individuals in their local area, fostering a sense of community and belonging.
On Personalization
The signal from followed accounts isn’t as high as alternatives - as we’ve learned from the effectiveness of Facebook/Instagram's algorith vs. TikTok's. Collectible assets or AI could offer new engagement avenues for apps like Yup.io and Trendcaster which with this protocol configuration could choose to tailor content based on a user’s on-chain activity, such as their NFT or POAP holdings. This personalized approach might enhance the overall user experience by providing relevant and meaningful content that aligns with each user’s preferences and passions.
On Onboarding
An onboarding process for newcomers is so useful in ensuring that users can quickly understand and utilize the features of an app (especially noobs like me). Apps like Farsearcher.xyz have a clear and intuitive search interface, accompanied by easy-to-follow instructions and tooltips that guide users through the process of finding content on Farcaster. This focus on user education helps remove barriers for newbies, enabling them to make the most of the app from the start.
Farcaster was launched by Dan Romero & Varun Srinivasan in August 2021 with $30M funding. It sits in a diverse social protocol/graph competitor landscape e.g. DeSo, RSS3, Lens, & Mises.
Papajams.eth
Farcaster @papa [https://www.discove.xyz/@papa]
Lens @papajams [https://lenster.xyz/u/papajams]
Twitter @papajimjams [https://twitter.com/papajimjams]