Threads Adds a Dedicated Fediverse Feed and Profile Search - Here’s What It Means

Meta’s text-centered offshoot of Instagram just pulled another lever for openness. Threads now shows a dedicated “Fediverse” feed and lets users search profiles across common ActivityPub servers. The feed sits at the top of the Following tab for anyone who flipped the early-access switch for Fediverse sharing. Tap it and you get a strict reverse-chronological list of posts from Mastodon, Flipboard, and other ActivityPub neighbours. Meta engineer Peter Cottle says the separation helps users understand what lives under Threads’ own policies and what does not.

Profile discovery picks up where the feed leaves off. Type a Mastodon handle, hit return, and Threads surfaces that user even if their server runs somewhere else. Follow once and their posts flow into the new column. The feature sweeps away a long-standing pain point for Mastodon newcomers: finding friends scattered across thousands of servers. Cottle says Threads can perform something like universal Fediverse search.

Threads still treats the Fediverse as an opt-in zone. Replies stay separate, and the app posts to Mastodon only if the account owner allows it. Inside Meta, the team debates how far this bridge should extend, yet leaders commit to fresh ActivityPub work alongside direct messages and spoiler tags.

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Meta frames the feed as a reading list rather than another algorithmic slot machine. The design echoes old RSS readers: one column, no rearrangement, no hidden replies. That clarity, in Cottle’s view, gives people a clean sense of what came from outside Threads.

Meta first experimented with Fediverse support in early 2024, introducing beta federation features and gradually expanding cross-platform access. Today’s changes represent the most prominent visibility Fediverse content has had within Threads so far .

In addition to Fediverse tools, Threads continues rolling out other features, including direct messaging, spoiler tags, and enriched profile links . The company says it plans to release educational resources to help users grasp how the Fediverse works, while it evaluates deeper integration options beyond the current feed and search setup .

These updates mark a meaningful step toward broader interoperability. But Threads still treats Fediverse content as a peripheral feature, something you check in a separate space, rather than a fully integrated part of your main feed. Users must still choose to enable sharing, making the rollout cautious and measured.

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