Threads is coming to the Fediverse — and it’s happening sooner than you think. On Thursday (Mar.21) Meta, the owners of Threads, announced a beta that allows users in certain countries to share their Threads posts on numerous other platforms. The ability to share Threads posts on other platforms is all down to them being on servers that are compliant with something called ActivityPub.
ActivityPub is an open, decentralized protocol that enables social networks to become interoperable. So, for instance, users could share a Threads post on another ActivityPub-compliant server like Mastodon. Protocols like this are nicknamed the ‘Fediverse’ because they allow federated social networks, which, basically, is just another way of saying interoperable social networks.
So, Threads users who ‘opt in’ will have their posts shared across the Fediverse — but replies from other social media networks won’t be viewable from Threads. Instead, viewers will have to go to the other Fediverse server in question.
When will Threads join the Meta’s Fediverse?
In a post, Meta software engineer Christopher Su and security engineer Simon Blackstein explained that Meta is taking a “phased” approach to Fediverse integration.
“In the future, we expect content to flow from the fediverse into Threads,” they wrote. “Federated Threads users will be able to see and engage with replies to their posts coming from other servers, or follow people on other fediverse servers and engage with their content directly in Threads. Our plan is for fediverse-enabled Threads profiles to ultimately have one consolidated number of followers that combines users that followed them from Threads and users from other servers. “
They concluded: “Building a federated social networking app is a complex and delicate process if it is to be done safely. While we don’t have exact dates or details on our milestones just yet, we’re committed to a fully interoperable experience, and we’ll take the time to get this right and grow the fediverse responsibly.”
Integrating Threads into the Fediverse is the latest in a long line of changes that have been implemented at Meta. Most recently, the social network has been playing around with trending topics —dubbed ‘Today’s Topics’ — and a new save feature similar to X.
Featured Image: Photo by Dave Adamson on Unsplash
