Flipboard Now Enables Users to Follow Any Individual Across the Fediverse, Including Threads Members

Threads enthusiasts are discovering a broader audience. On a notable Tuesday, Flipboard, the app renowned for its social magazine flair, progressed in its efforts to link with ActivityPub—a decentralized protocol that energizes Mastodon, PixelFed, PeerTube, among other platforms. From this day forward, Flipboard subscribers are granted the capability to follow any account within the federated realm, that is, accounts within the collaborative network of servers termed the fediverse, encompassing not only Mastodon but also Threads accounts.

This enhancement enriches Flipboard’s ties with the ActivityPub network, permitting its users to track profiles across various federated services. When users federate their own Flipboard accounts, it opens up possibilities for them to interact with posts and partake in discussions across the network.

The scale of Flipboard’s community remains undisclosed. Established in 2010, Flipboard began as a pioneering social magazine platform, enabling users to aggregate content from the web. Recently, it has ventured into the fediverse, reigniting its relevance. Following integration restrictions with X (formerly known as Twitter) under Elon Musk’s administration, Flipboard embraced the fediverse by incorporating Mastodon and announced intentions to evolve into a fully federated application through ActivityPub engagement.

Subsequently, Flipboard has initiated the incorporation of its content and user profiles into the fediverse, now boasting over 700 federated curators and publishers, along with their 15,000 magazines—primarily based in the U.S. The company is also exploring expansion in the U.K. and Germany.

Although Flipboard supports comprehensive fediverse integration, the activation of federation for all users is being introduced gradually. The company aims to offer federation as a selectable feature for users later in the year, echoing Threads, which added a fediverse sharing feature in June. Once enabled, users will have the capacity to not only contribute to the fediverse but also to observe and engage with discourse around their published contents within the network.

The landscape of the fediverse is rapidly evolving. Following Twitter’s acquisition by Elon Musk, there’s been a surge in demand for a decentralized social ecosystem—one that is beyond the reach of billionaires and supports account migration. This interest has propelled Meta to incorporate ActivityPub in its latest app, Threads, further accelerating the momentum. Moreover, platforms like WordPress have embraced federation through Automattic’s acquisition of an ActivityPub plugin. The federation wave is further embraced by Ghost, a competitor to Substack, with Mozilla and Medium establishing their Mastodon instances.

With the recent Flipboard update, users now enjoy the capability to discover and connect with federated accounts across various sections of the app: Search, Explore, and Community. Federated accounts will prominently feature in a dedicated section within search outcomes, labeled “Fediverse Accounts.” Editorial recommendations are accessible under the “Fediverse” category in the Explore tab, with a new range of profiles spotlighted weekly in the Community section. Federated activities will also be visible within the Flipboard notifications panel, enhancing user engagement and connectivity within the fediverse.

Flipboard users now have the advantage of following notable profiles from Threads and Mastodon directly within the app. This includes distinguished figures such as President Joe Biden (POTUS) and former President Barack Obama, along with creative minds like Marques Brownlee, and esteemed journalists like Kara Swisher.