Threads takes an important baby step toward true fediverse integration

You can now follow fediverse accounts on Threads, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced. Threads rolled out fediverse users’ likes and replies in a very limited way at first, and it’s the same here — fediverse posts won’t appear in your feeds, and you can only follow those accounts if they’ve interacted with a post on Threads.

While fediverse posts won’t show in feeds, Instagram head Adam Mosseri says their profile and posts do appear on Threads, and you have the option to get notifications when they publish. That’s something, at least. Mosseri posted a video of what the process looks like:

Zuckerberg says you can follow fediverse accounts when you see they’ve “liked, followed, or replied” to a federated Threads profile, but there’s one other way you might find them.

“On web and android today (and iOS soon), we’ll start linkifying Fediverse usernames in posts,” wrote Threads developer Peter Cottle among a series of posts about the new integration. Cottle added that your account will need to be federated and that the fediverse account must be “eligible to be followed.”

Cottle also demonstrated that you can tag fediverse accounts, linking to Star Trek actor and activist George Takei’s Mastodon account:

Meta’s Seine Kim tells The Verge in an email that the platform’s “goal remains to grow the fediverse responsibly, prioritizing the success of a safe, diverse, content-rich, and interoperable community.” Kim added that the change is another step in Threads’ plan to become fully interoperable with the fediverse in time.

Notably though, new Threads features have picked up the pace in recent weeks. Maybe that’s got something to do with all the attention Bluesky’s been getting lately?