Mark Zuckerberg has announced that you can now follow fediverse accounts on Threads. Initially, fediverse users’ likes and replies were rolled out in a limited way. Just like before, fediverse posts won’t show up in your feeds, and you can only follow those accounts if they’ve interacted with a post on Threads.
While fediverse posts won’t appear in feeds, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, mentioned that their profile and posts do show up on Threads. You also have the option to get notifications when they publish. Mosseri posted a video demonstrating this process.
Zuckerberg mentioned that you can follow fediverse accounts if you see they’ve “liked, followed, or replied” to a federated Threads profile. There’s also another way to find them.
Threads developer Peter Cottle mentioned that on web and android (and soon on iOS), they will start linkifying Fediverse usernames in posts. Your account needs to be federated, and the fediverse account must be “eligible to be followed.”
Cottle demonstrated that you can tag fediverse accounts, linking to Star Trek actor and activist George Takei’s Mastodon account.
Meta’s Seine Kim mentioned in an email to The Verge that their goal is to grow the fediverse responsibly, prioritizing a safe, diverse, content-rich, and interoperable community. This change is part of Threads’ plan to become fully interoperable with the fediverse over time.
Recently, new features on Threads have been introduced at a faster rate. Perhaps this is related to the increased attention Bluesky has been receiving?
