It looks like the fediverse keeps opening up. In late March, Meta’s Threads introduced a beta feature that allows users from the US, Canada, or Japan to cross-post and view likes from Mastodon and, presumably, other federated social networks. In June, it added the capability to more than 100 countries.
If you want to do it the long way, you can still do it from the mobile app or the web version:
Once you choose Fediverse sharingyou’ll probably be taken to a series of explanatory screens telling you what fediverse is and how sharing works (you need a public profile) and warning you that once your post goes up on fediverse, Threads has no control in the policies of the servers it reaches. If you stop sharing, Meta may request that any previously shared posts be removed from another server, but that’s it. (Note: these are the warnings I observed when I first went through the process in March; since they only appear the first time you enable sharing, they may have changed since then.)
A few other things to note:
So, what does all that mean?
This means, according to Meta, that “your Threads profile can be followed by people using different fediverse servers, and ultimately, you can follow them from Threads.” If you turn on your sharing and select “Fediverse sharing,” you will be reminded of your username and told that you can now connect and share with others on fediverse.
How important this is depends on how well cross-posting is going to be in the future, how efficient the process is, and what kinds of security measures are put in place to prevent bad actors from using it to attack the servers meant to be safe spaces, among other issues. As mentioned above, I have been using it since March and found the process to work well. This could be the beginning of a wider type of social networking.
Update on September 13, 2024: Updated to include the single link leading to the fediverse sharing dialog, among other changes.
