One of the unique aspects of Instagram’s new Threads app is its upcoming ability to participate in the “fediverse,” and now the app is preparing a helpful explainer of how the fediverse and apps like Mastodon work.
About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we’re able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how they’ll look in the case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on.
In the ongoing hunt for a Twitter alternative, Mastodon is one of the apps that have some potential as a replacement, especially as it’s built on the open “ActivityPub” standard. Meanwhile, the newest entrant to the microblogging space, Threads, has confirmed that it would also support ActivityPub, ideally allowing Threads users to connect with Mastodon users and vice versa.
However, since ActivityPub – and the many apps powered by it, commonly referred to as the “fediverse” – is still relatively new, a lot of people may be confused about how it works or why it matters that Threads supports it.
To address that, the latest Threads beta update prepares a brief Q&A explainer of what the fediverse is and how to find your friends on it. In a helpful analogy, Meta likens the fediverse to using e-mail. Just as someone who uses Gmail can send messages to someone who prefers Outlook, people on Threads should be able to interact with people on Mastodon.
What’s this “fediverse” thing all about?
The fediverse is just a fancy word used to describe a bunch of social media services that can communicate with each other.
How do I find people in the fediverse?
It works exactly like e-mail (you can send an e-mail from Gmail to Yahoo and vice versa). This allows people to choose their favorite service and follow each other even if they don’t use the same one!
Meanwhile, new text in the app reveals that there will be an initial limitation on the way people on Threads will be able to interact with those in the wider fediverse. Specifically, accounts set to private will not be able to follow or interact with Mastodon and other fediverse platforms until “a later date.”
Follow others in the fediverse?
Public profiles can follow and interact with people on other platforms.
Private profiles will be able to follow an interact with people on other platforms at a later date.
The only other detail we know about the interaction between Threads and the fediverse – spotted in an earlier teardown – is that posts with restricted replies will not be visible outside of Threads. This is presumably due to most fediverse services not yet supporting reply restrictions.
When you limit replies, your thread will not be shared with your fediverse followers.
Thanks to JEB Decompiler, from which some APK Insight teardowns benefit.
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