Built in Public: Every Major Piece of Feedback About Monnett—and What We Did About It

Published on August 25, 2026

Updated: August 2026

If you search for Monnett online, you’ll find enthusiasm, scepticism, bug reports, feature requests and difficult questions.

That’s exactly what we’d expect.

Building a new social platform from scratch means releasing early, listening carefully and improving continuously. Unlike established platforms that have had more than a decade to mature, Monnett entered the market knowing it would evolve through real-world use.

Rather than pretending the criticism never existed, we want to document it. This article brings together recurring themes from App Store reviews, Reddit discussions and other public feedback, explains what people told us, what we learned and where the platform stands today.

We didn’t build Monnett behind closed doors. We built it in public.

1. “The idea is great, but there are too many bugs.”

This was the single most common criticism during Monnett’s early public releases. Across App Store reviews, people reported issues such as:

Profile pictures failing to update.
Posts occasionally failing to publish.
Notification badges remaining after being viewed.
Feed refresh inconsistencies.
Registration and onboarding problems.
Freezes and crashes on some devices. (App Store)

At the same time, many reviewers also said they believed in the vision. One reviewer described Monnett as a “fantastic start” but noted we were “missing features and a few bugs.” Another praised the “peaceful posting” experience without algorithmic feeds while reporting a visual bug with likes. (App Store)

What we learned
People can forgive missing features. They rarely forgive instability. If someone cannot complete onboarding or publish their first post, nothing else matters.

What changed
Throughout 2026, we prioritised engineering over feature expansion.Successive releases focused on:

improving media uploads,
fixing profile update issues,
reducing cache usage,
improving search,
resolving logout problems,
correcting onboarding flows,
and addressing location, messaging and profile management bugs. (App Store)

Status (August 2026): Stability has improved substantially compared with the earliest releases, although performance optimisation remains an ongoing priority.

2. “It feels empty.”

Perhaps the fairest criticism we received had nothing to do with software. It was about people.

Several Reddit users described joining Monnett and finding an empty feed or too little activity. One compared it to “entering in a museum, all nice pictures, but no people, no movement.” Others pointed out that social networks only become valuable once friends and creators join. (Reddit)

They’re right. Network effects are the hardest part of building any new social platform. Instagram, Facebook and TikTok all benefited from years of community growth before reaching critical mass.

What we learnedYou cannot manufacture community. You have to earn it.

What changedInstead of artificially boosting engagement, we continued focusing on attracting genuine communities, creators and local groups while improving discovery and encouraging people to invite friends. Growth takes time. Meaningful communities always do.

3. “Why should I leave Instagram?”

Some reviewers questioned whether Monnett offered a compelling enough reason to switch.

One App Store review argued that people needed a clearer reason to leave Instagram and described the platform as still feeling “very empty.” (App Store)

This was valuable feedback. Building an alternative isn’t enough. People need to understand why it’s different.

What we learnedOur message needed to become clearer. Monnett isn’t trying to recreate traditional social media. We’re trying to build something fundamentally different:

chronological relationships,
greater control over recommendations,
fewer incentives to endlessly scroll,
and a healthier experience centred on people rather than engagement optimisation.

4. “Where’s the desktop version?”

This appeared repeatedly across Reddit. Some people simply won’t adopt a social platform that’s only available as a mobile app. Others said they preferred browsing from a computer or wanted to avoid installing another mobile application. (Reddit)

That’s fair.

Supporting multiple platforms improves accessibility and lowers barriers to adoption. It’s feedback we’ve taken seriously as the product evolves.

5. “How will Monnett make money?”

One of the most common questions we see on Reddit and elsewhere is simple:If Monnett isn’t built around advertising, how does it make money?

It’s a fair question. People have become used to social media platforms being free because they are funded by advertising and, in many cases, highly personalised data collection. When a platform promises a different approach, it’s natural to ask how the business works.

What we learnedPeople want transparency—not just about algorithms, but about incentives. The way a platform earns money influences the way it is built. If revenue depends on maximising attention and advertising impressions, the product is naturally optimised to keep people scrolling for as long as possible.

We wanted a different alignment. Our approach. Monnett is built around a subscription model. Our goal is simple: if people choose to pay for Monnett, our incentive is to build a platform they genuinely enjoy using—not one designed to maximise screen time or advertising revenue. That means we can focus on improving the experience for our members rather than optimising for clicks, impressions or engagement at any cost.

Status (August 2026)Our long-term strategy remains subscription-first. We believe the healthiest social networks are those where the platform succeeds by serving its community—not by selling its attention.

6. “Is there really no algorithm?”

Another recurring discussion centred on algorithms. Some people loved the idea. Others questioned whether recommendations are necessary for discovery or wondered how content moderation would work without heavy AI-driven ranking. (Reddit)

Those discussions helped us better explain our philosophy. The goal has never been to eliminate useful recommendations entirely. The goal is to give people greater transparency and more control over what they see instead of relying on opaque engagement systems.

7. “The team actually listens.”

Not all the feedback was negative. One of the most encouraging patterns across Reddit was that early members recognised how actively Monnett engaged with its community. People noted regular updates, active responses to bug reports, Discord discussions, and a willingness to improve the product based on feedback. (Reddit)

That is exactly the culture we want to build. When someone reports a bug, they’re helping improve Monnett for everyone. When someone challenges our product decisions, they’re helping shape the roadmap. Building in public only works if feedback genuinely changes the product.

What We Still Haven’t SolvedWe don’t believe credibility comes from claiming perfection.There is still work ahead.Growing a thriving community takes time.Expanding creator tools takes time.Continuing to improve stability takes time.Competing with platforms that have existed for more than a decade takes time.We’re comfortable saying that publicly.

Looking BackIf you compare the earliest App Store reviews and Reddit discussions with today’s product, you’ll see a platform that has evolved significantly.Many of the early technical issues have been addressed through regular updates. New features have been added. The product has become faster and more stable. (App Store)More importantly, the conversation has shifted.Instead of asking whether Monnett can be built at all, people are increasingly discussing how it should evolve.That’s exactly where we hoped to be.

Thank You

To everyone who left an App Store review.To everyone who posted on Reddit.To everyone who filed a bug report.To everyone who challenged our assumptions.Thank you.You didn’t just use Monnett.You helped build it.And we’ll continue listening.Because building a better social network isn’t something a company does alone.It’s something a community builds together.

Built in Europe. Open to the world. Built in public.