Flipboard is making good on a major fediverse promise. Late last year, at the same time it announced it would be switching user accounts to ActivityPub, Flipboard said it planned to let users follow users on federated platforms that used ActivityPub from the Flipboard app. Starting Tuesday, that feature is here, meaning that you can follow people from places like Mastodon, Threads, and Pixelfed right inside Flipboard.
Technology
Flipboard is going to let you follow fediverse accounts right inside the app
Flipboard will now let users follow fediverse accounts from the Flipboard app, meaning you can see news and posts from people that interest you all within one app.
Flipboard will feature fediverse profiles in a few different ways in the app. Flipboardâs search will show fediverse accounts, for example, while the Explore tab will have editorially curated recommendations, according to a press release. In a screenshot shared by Flipboard, the Explore section has a âFediverseâ tab thatâs populated with profiles like Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patelâs Threads account and Mike Masnickâs Mastodon account, and you can follow those accounts with a tap.
While youâll be able to see posts from federated accounts on other platforms, you wonât be able to reply to or like those posts from Flipboard unless your Flipboard account is also federated, which may not be the case for everyone. Flipboard has only turned that on for some accounts so far, and if yours isnât federated yet, youâll be able to request for that to happen, Flipboardâs Marci McCue tells The Verge.
Still, Flipboardâs fediverse expansion could make the app a one-stop shop for your news and social media posts from the people youâre most interested in. Iâm intrigued by the idea; I usually keep my article feeds and my social feeds in separate apps, but I can see how it could be useful to combine them both.
Flipboard has been a vocal supporter of federation. The company created its own Mastodon instance (Flipboard.social) in 2023, and CEO Mike McCue has written and talked about how big a deal he thinks federation is. But thanks to things like this Flipboard update and the newly added ability in Threads to see replies to your federated posts, the lofty promises of federated social networking are becoming more of a reality.