What just happened? Donald Trump's social media platform, Truth Social, is now available via Apple's App Store after launching late on Sunday. The public release of the Twitter-like service follows a reported beta phase of 500 users that has been running since December. It was the top free app on the the store earlier today.

Trump's relationship with social media during his time as president was strained to say the least. Despite being a prolific Twitter user who regularly tweeted official policy on the platform, he often accused it of being biased against conservative viewpoints. Trump was banned from Twitter (and Facebook and YouTube) in early 2021 over accusations that he posted messages inciting violence during the storming of the US Capitol attack.

Truth Social on the Apple App Store

We first heard about plans for Trump's social network back in March last year. But his 'From the Desk of Donald J. Trump' was closer to a blog and didn't even last one month.

The Truth Social project is being developed by Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) and led by former Republican Representative David Nunes. Like Twitter's tweets, the platform's individual posts are known as Truths. They are shown on a Truth Feed, and if you want to share a post, you can ReTruth it. There will also be support for direct messaging, as well as user verification.

If you do want to join Truth Social, be prepared to wait. Reuters reports that people trying to register for an account have encountered problems or were put on to a waitlist. The truthsocial.com website, which is not secured through HTTPS and only appears to be working for those in the US right now, keeps going down.

Truth Social will be joining other similar social networks with a conservative slant competing against Twitter, including Gettr, Parler, and video site Rumble.

"This week we will begin to roll out on the Apple App Store. That's going to be awesome, because we're going to get so many more people that are going to be on the platform," Nunes said on Fox News yesterday. "Our goal is, I think we're going to hit it, I think by the end of March we're going to be fully operational at least within the United States," he added.

For interested Android users, the Truth Social website notes that it will be coming to the Google Play Store "soon."