Spill is now in open beta on iOS and Android

It’s been more than a year since Elon Musk bought Twitter, but we’re nonetheless seeing the reverberations of that deal on different social platforms, together with the brand new ones which have cropped up since. Spill, a platform based by ex-Twitter staff, is closing out its first 12 months in the marketplace by opening up its beta to all customers, whether or not they’re on iOS or Android.

Spill is just like the polar reverse of X, a platform that continues to alienate users with platform policies that make the app actively much less inclusive. Spill’s founders — who met while working at Twitter as a result of they realized they have been the one two Black folks of their worker orientation — are constructing a platform that prizes range from the get-go.

“On every other platform, culture drivers — Black and brown folks, marginalized folks, queer folks — have had to kind of elbow to create space,” mentioned Kenya Parham, Spill’s VP of neighborhood and partnerships, in a past conversation with TechCrunch. “We’re starting off with them at the front of the line, and we think that’s going to create a really healthy ecosystem.”

Picture Credit: Spill

The app seems like a cross between Twitter and Tumblr — it’s a microblogging platform the place you comply with folks and scroll via your feed, nevertheless it’s extra multimedia-driven. At AfroTech final month, Spill unveiled its “Tea Party” characteristic, which permits for customers to have stay conversations by way of audio or video; the primary Tea Celebration was hosted by actress Kerry Washington, through which she opened up about her new memoir.

Round his one-year anniversary of being laid off from Twitter, Spill CEO Alphonzo Terrell advised TechCrunch that the app has amassed round 200,000 customers. Spill has raised a complete of $5 million in pre-seed funding up to now, together with a current $2 million extension led by Collide Capital.

Spill might not be rising as rapidly as different Twitter opponents like Bluesky, Mastodon or Threads, however Terrell isn’t anxious.

“People are looking for something new,” Terrell told TechCrunch final month. “I think things that have really defined, unique value propositions are going to win over the long term — it might not be like there’s one winner-take-all.”