Instagram’s Twitter/X competitor Threads is expanding its reach into the fediverse — an interconnected social network that includes apps like Mastodon, PeerTube, and others utilizing the ActivityPub protocol. On Tuesday, Meta announced that its beta for sharing to the fediverse is now open to Threads users who are 18 and older with public accounts in global markets.
The beta, initially launched in March and limited to the U.S., Canada, and Japan, is now available in over 100 countries, as shared by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a Threads post.
In this beta, Meta is tackling a significant challenge: educating users about the fediverse. Many people are unfamiliar with how the fediverse works or what it means to federate accounts across the open social web. Within Threads, Meta offers an explainer on the fediverse, describing it as a network of interconnected servers, detailing how sharing functions, and answering basic questions. This effort aims to encourage more users to explore the fediverse, including those who might be intimidated by federated apps like Mastodon.
Meta is also allowing authors of federated posts to like and see replies from the wider fediverse. However, the ability to respond to those replies is not yet live.
As a beta experience, opting into fediverse sharing will make Threads posts available on Mastodon, and interactions from Mastodon will be visible on Threads. For Mastodon users, Threads posts will be available in the fediverse, but only top-level posts and self-replies are federated at this time. Other post types, like polls and posts with reply controls, are not yet supported.
To enable fediverse sharing in Threads, users can find the option in their Account Settings, labeled “Fediverse Sharing (Beta),” which includes instructions and a link to Threads Supplemental Privacy Policy.
Instagram stated in an email to TechCrunch, “Our goal remains to grow the fediverse responsibly, prioritizing a safe, diverse, content-rich, and interoperable community. This is just the next step in making Threads interoperable with ActivityPub, and we will continue to collaborate with developers and policymakers to enhance the fediverse experience, offering expanded content reach, community building, portability, and more.”
With Threads, Meta quickly became the largest app in the fediverse, surpassing 150 million monthly active users as of April. The broader fediverse has over 11 million total users, with more than 800,000 active monthly users on Mastodon.