• by Colin Kirkland , December 5, 2024

Moving on with its goal to build out a decentralized social media platform, Meta has now made it possible for Threads users to follow people from other fediverse servers who have interacted with their posts on the up-and-coming microblogging app.

“You can see their posts by navigating to their profile, and you can also choose to be notified when they post on their server,” explains Instagram head Adam Mosseri.

The fediverse is a hub of federated social networks – including Mastodon, WordPress, PeerTube, and Pixelfed – that coexist on a shared protocol called ActivityPub.

Being able to link Threads users directly to users on these other social platforms has been a major goal for Meta since it launched the app in July of 2023. The company first announced plans to join the fediverse a few months later, stating that it would make the app more relevant to a younger demographic and newer creators, while providing users more choice over how they interact.

Eventually, Meta expanded fediverse posting to over 100 countries, inviting users over 18 years old with public Threads accounts to share content across other federated platforms, theoretically providing them with the chance to boost their content to a wider swath of people.

Beyond enhanced content reach, Meta believes that expanding its fediverse connectivity via Threads will also boost emerging communities, diversify users' social media experiences, and provide more portability.   

With around 275 million active users, Threads is currently the most popular federated server. Mosseri says that Meta will continue to release interoperable features.