Threads now allows users to follow fediverse accounts directly in its app

Meta is taking another important step toward making Threads interoperable with the fediverse. The app now allows users to follow accounts from Mastodon and other fediverse apps directly from Threads, Mark Zuckerberg said in .

Since the of Threads, Meta has promised to bake-in support for ActivityPub, the open-source protocol that powers Mastodon and other that make up “the fediverse.” Eventually, the goal is for Threads users to be able to seamlessly interact with other users on Mastodon or other sites that use ActivityPub.

With the latest change, Threads users who have previously opted into in the app will now be able to view profiles and follow accounts from Mastodon and other services directly in Threads. The update is a significant move toward making Threads compatible with the wider Activity Pub ecosystem.

That said, there are still some significant limitations to Threads’ fediverse support. There’s currently no way to search for users on other servers, so the only way to find those accounts is to look for fediverse accounts that have or otherwise one of your posts.

Users are also still unable to reply to posts that originate on Mastodon or other ActivityPub services, so the interactions are still one way — at least for now. And an in-app disclaimer from Meta notes that fediverse sharing is still a beta feature and that some posts from other servers “may not be visible” in Threads. Adam Mosseri, however, that “more interop features are on the way,” so hopefully fediverse enthusiasts won’t have long to wait to see deeper integrations.