Threads, Instagram's Twitter/X rival, is expanding into the Fediverse, an interconnected social network that includes Mastodon, PeerTube and other apps that run the ActivityPub protocol. On Tuesday, Meta announced it was opening up a beta of sharing to the Fediverse to Threads users over the age of 18 who are using Threads with public accounts in global markets.
The beta was first introduced in March but was initially limited to just three countries: the U.S., Canada, and Japan. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed in a Threads post that the option is now available in over 100 countries worldwide.
In beta, Meta is also working on user education, one of its larger efforts to make the Fediverse more viable. Currently, many people don't understand how the Fediverse works or what it means to federate accounts on the open social web. But within Threads, Meta provides commentary that describes the Fediverse as a social network of interacting servers, informs users how sharing works, and answers some basic questions. In doing so, Meta may encourage more people to explore the Fediverse, including those who have been apprehensive about existing federated apps like Mastodon.
In parallel with the expansion, Meta has also made it possible for federated post authors to like and see replies from the broader fediverse, although it has not yet taken the final step of allowing them to respond to those replies with their own replies.
Because this is a beta experience, Meta says that when you opt-in to Fediverse sharing, your thread posts will be available in Mastodon, and likes and replies from Mastodon and the Fediverse will also be available directly in the thread. To ensure that the beta is a good experience for Mastodon users, Meta says that posts from threads will be available in the Fediverse, but for now only top-level posts and self-replies will be federated. Other post types, such as polls or posts with reply controls, are not yet supported.
To enable Fediverse sharing in Threads, tap the option in your account settings. It's labeled “Fediverse Sharing (Beta)” and provides instructions and a link to the Threads supplemental privacy policy.
“Our goal is to grow the Fediverse responsibly while prioritizing the success of a safe, diverse, content-rich, and interoperable community,” Instagram said in an email to TechCrunch. “This is just the next step in our efforts to make Threads interoperable with ActivityPub. We will continue to work with developers and policymakers to make progress so creators and users across our services can experience the benefits the Fediverse has to offer, including expanded content reach, further fostering communities, and portability.”
Threads has quickly made Meta the largest app in the Fediverse, with over 150 million monthly active users as of April. The Fediverse as a whole has a total of over 11 million users, with over 800,000 of them active on Mastodon each month.