So Instagram just replaced Twitter with Threads

[bnew]

Move Over Twitter, Threads is Going Fediverse

In a surprise announcement, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared that Threads, the company’s Twitter-competitor app, will soon become interoperable with the fediverse via decentralized protocols. This means Threads content and profiles will be viewable on Mastodon and other ActivityPub-based social...

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Move Over Twitter, Threads is Going Fediverse​

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Dec 13, 2023 · 2 mins read

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In a surprise announcement, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared that Threads, the company’s Twitter-competitor app, will soon become interoperable with the fediverse via decentralized protocols. This means Threads content and profiles will be viewable on Mastodon and other ActivityPub-based social platforms.

“Making Threads interoperable will give people more choice over how they interact and it will help content reach more people. I’m pretty optimistic about this,” said Zuckerberg.

For those thinking “fedi-whatsit?”, here’s a quick explainer. The fediverse refers to a collection of independent, decentralized social media servers. Together, they facilitate open access and data portability across platforms. Power comes from the collective, not a centralized authority like Meta.

By tapping into the fediverse, Threads plugs into a network of millions of users across thousands of servers. It divides Meta’s dominance and lets users decide where and how to engage. Of course, Meta still profits from all the Threads activity, so maybe it’s not feeling too altruistic.

Understandably, some fediverse mods aren’t thrilled by a Meta invasion. But most see it as a step toward data liberation from walled gardens. Users get more control over their content rather than being locked in Zuckerberg’s kingdom.

For now, Mastodon users can follow Threads profiles but not vice versa. It’s a start, and the plan is for full interoperability. Back in August, Threads also added Mastodon profile verification. Slowly but surely, Meta is decentralizing Threads.

What Does This Mean for You?​

As a Threads user, your content and profile may suddenly gain a whole new audience on the fediverse. Mastodon alone has millions of monthly users. This unlocks serious exposure potential.

Your posts made on Threads could end up displayed to a indie bookshop owner in Edinburgh or a goat farmer in Peru - not the usual crowd for polished, blue-checkmarked metaverse citizens. But it does expand horizons.

You also gain more control over your data. If you ever leave Threads, your content comes with you and remains visible. Things you share, like photos and comments won’t disappear into a Meta void. Portability is freedom.

For Meta, embracing federation signals they are serious about decentralization and open ecosystems. They see the backlash against data exploitation and loss of privacy. The fediverse aligns incentives around user needs, not profit.

Maybe Meta is changing its ways or just paying lip service; the coming months will tell. Butconnecting Threads to the fediverse is a trailblazing move, no matter the motivation.

Other Fediverse Platforms to Watch​

Threads will exchange ActivityPub data with Mastodon first but that’s just one fediverse server. The concept transcends individual platforms. Other notable fediverse apps include:

• PeerTube: Video sharing alternative to YouTube
• PixelFed: Photo feed and galleries, like Instagram
• Friendica: Facebook-style profiles and timelines
• Lemmy: An alternative to Reddit hosted in various places.

Notice that I did not mention Hive or Steemit, which are simply frontends to single blockchain backends.

In time, Threads could integrate with many or all of these. For now it’s Mastodon, but the possibilities span gaming, events, messaging, video - anything communication-related.

As they say, the fediverse is the limit. This initial bridging from Threads is only the beginning as the next era of social interaction takes shape.

 

[Morethan1]

 

[bnew]

Mike McCue (@mike@flipboard.social)

With today's announcement you can see the stories that some terrific publishers are curating on Flipboard: Afar @AfarMedia@flipboard.com The Root @TheRoot@flipboard.com Pitchfork @pitchfork@flipboard.com The Collector @thecollector@flipboard.com LGBTQ Nation @LGBTQNation@flipboard.com...

flipboard.social

Garry Knight (@garry@mstdn.social)

Flipboard is pivoting to ActivityPub and the fediverse 'If you have a Flipboard account, you’ll soon have an account everywhere in the open social web' We knew it was coming and here it is. #SocialMedia #News #Flipboard...

mstdn.social

so pretty soon flipboard users will be able to comment, like, repost and pm threads users and vice versa.

 

[bnew]

Bluesky posts are finally open to the public

It’s a potentially big moment for Bluesky.

www.theverge.com

Bluesky posts are finally open to the public​

The platform also has a new logo — a butterfly.​

By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He’s submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium.

Dec 22, 2023, 6:21 PM EST|52 Comments / 52 New

Image: Bluesky

Bluesky remains an invite-only decentralized Twitter alternative, but now, you don’t need to have an account and log in to be able to see posts on the platform, according to a blog post from Bluesky CEO Jay Graber. Now, anyone can easily see posts from both the web and from the Bluesky app — like this one.

If you want to prevent people who aren’t logged in from seeing your posts, you can “discourage” that by clicking a toggle in settings. But Bluesky notes that “other apps may not honor this request” and that the toggle doesn’t make your account private.

“Bluesky is an open and public network,” Bluesky says in a note under the toggle. “This setting only limits the visibility of your content on the Bluesky app and website, and other apps may not respect this setting.” In the blog post, Graber notes that “posts on Bluesky have always been public via developer tooling and other apps.”

Bluesky has a new logo, too: a butterfly. Previously, the app’s logo was a blue sky with clouds, but “early on, we noticed that people were organically using the butterfly emoji to indicate their Bluesky handles,” Graber says in the blog post. “The butterfly speaks to our mission of transforming social media into something new.”

I think the butterfly is a big improvement from the generic blue sky. And, as spotted by my colleague Parker Ortolani, the app has a fun animation that will feel familiar to fans of Twitter. (I do mean Twitter, not X.)

With the increasing momentum behind ActivityPub — including the very public support from Meta’s Threads — I’ve worried that Bluesky, which is based on its own AT Protocol, might get left behind. But every time I hop over to my Bluesky account, it seems like people are having a lot of fun — the platform seems to be growing quickly, too — so hopefully the protocols can co-exist and usher in a fediverse future.

---

Pedro Marques | Toronto (@ipedro) on Threads

The momentum is with ActivityPub. BlueSky is attempting to build their own protocol and took way too long to send people who were interested. I eventually got in from a shared invite but have not heard back from BlueSky for my code request from 6 months ago. Threads has all the momentum and the...

www.threads.net

Dave Winer (@davew) on Threads

Bluesky has RSS 2.0 feeds for every user, built-in. Now we have a basis for interop between Mastodon and Bluesky. Important milestone. What can we build with this? Start thinking, building.

www.threads.net

Bluesky (@bsky.app)

📢 1.60 is rolling out now (3/5) RSS feeds for profiles! Access your posts via RSS by pasting your profile link into your RSS feed reader and it will automatically be discovered.

bsky.app

Bluesky

bsky.app

Rob Pegoraro (@robpegoraro.com)

Another note about the new public-view feature: It looks like Bluesky's also-new RSS support respects opt-outs of it, going by tests in Feedly and NetNewsWire with profile addresses of people who have opted out. [contains quote post or other embedded content]

bsky.app

Posts, profiles, and user search are now available without login | Hacker News

news.ycombinator.com

 

[bnew]

In battle with X, Threads gets trending topics where politics will be allowed | TechCrunch

After acknowledging last week that Meta's X competitor Threads would not actively recommend political content, the company today announced a test of a new

techcrunch.com

In battle with X, Threads gets trending topics where politics will be allowed​

Sarah Perez @sarahpereztc / 1:43 PM EST•February 12, 2024

Image Credits: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto (opens in a new window)/ Getty Images

After acknowledging last week that Meta’s X competitor Threads would not actively recommend political content, the company today announced a test of a new trends feature, “topics,” where such content could potentially surface anyway. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Monday that Threads would begin a small test of the feature, initially in the U.S., to help users find “timely topics” that others are discussing on the social network.

Today’s topics, as the section will be titled, are determined by Meta’s AI systems and are based on what people are engaging with on Threads, Meta told TechCrunch. These topics will be surfaced in the app in two places: on the Search page and in the For You feed.

The machine learning algorithm will take into account a variety of signals, including how many people are talking about a given topic and how many people have engaged with posts on that same topic. Meta says its team of content specialists will ensure the topics aren’t in violation of the site’s Community Guidelines and “other applicable integrity guidelines.” It also said that Meta’s team would check to ensure that there aren’t duplicate topics and that the topics featured aren’t “nonsensical or misleading.”

In addition, users will be able to flag potentially problematic content in the case that a topic surfaces that violates guidelines but isn’t immediately caught by the site’s moderators.

Of course, what we wanted to know was whether or not Meta would suppress political content within topics, given it had proclaimed last week that it would no longer recommend political content across recommendation surfaces on Instagram and Threads. That change impacts areas like Instagram Reels and Instagram Explore, as well as the In-Feed Recommendations across both Instagram and Threads, the company explained at the time.

Image Credits: Threads

Meta tells us it will not suppress politically-themed topics, however.

“Political content can be a topic,” a rep for Meta said. “We will only remove political topics if they violate our Community Guidelines or other applicable integrity policies. Today’s topics aim to reflect timely, relevant topics in the app, and are not personalized recommendations,” they explained.

In other words, because topics are determined by algorithms, but aren’t individualized to the end users, they don’t get swept up in Threads’ political content purge from recommendations.

The feature could make Threads more competitive with its rival X, formerly Twitter, as it would help users to seek out timely conversations and debates taking place on the platform, which could give the app a more real-time feel — something it’s been lacking. It remains to be seen how much human oversight will be directed toward the topics section, which Meta could either fully curate or largely leave up to an algorithm.

 

[Artificial Intelligence]

 

[Red Money]

Threads now reaches more than 130 million monthly users, says Meta, up 30M from Q3 | TechCrunch

Instagram Threads now has more than 130 million monthly active users, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced during the company's fourth-quarter earnings

techcrunch.com

Is threads making a comeback?


NFL still hasn't posted in about 6 months....but they still post on Twitter. Same with Skip Bayless.

 

[bnew]

Threads Says No To Third Party Clients (But Yes To Third Party Apps)

So if you were hoping for a third-party Threads client in the future (which would mimic the functionality of the official Threads app), @...

darnell.day

Threads Says No To Third Party Clients (But Yes To Third Party Apps)​

March 6, 2024

So if you were hoping for a third-party Threads client in the future (which would mimic the functionality of the official Threads app), @0xjessel@threads.net (an employee of Threads) revealed several days ago that is not on the road map.

there are no plans to support APIs for 3p clients. but posts from federated threads users can be seen on other mastodon apps if you follow them ( 0xjessel on Threads)

This is not to be confused with Threads releasing an API (or Application Programming Interface for you non-geeks out there) for developers to integrate within their respective applications or websites.

Threads API Update 🛜

Over the past few months, we’ve been building the Threads API to enable creators, developers and brands to manage their Threads presence at scale and easily share fresh, new ideas with their communities from their favorite third-party applications.

The API currently enables users to authenticate, publish threads, and fetch the content they posted through these tools – and soon, we will enable reply moderation and insights capabilities. ( 0xjessel)

This probably confirms that, like Instagram, Meta wants Threads to be the only client available to maximize revenue generated from advertisers.

Although Meta could allow third-party clients to be built, they would have to figure out a means to force developers to include ads within third-party apps (the latter may not want to allow ads unless they are receiving part of the profits).

A prime advantage of allowing third-party developers to create clients is that they can often build mobile & desktop apps for operating systems considered irrelevant by the corporate overlords.

One example is an app by @me@sns.mszpro.com called Sora, which is available on:

• iPhone
  
• iPad
  
• Apple Watch
  
• MacBook
  
• Vision Pro
  
  

Meanwhile, Threads is limited to iPhone & Android, with no clear indication of whether they will support iPad or Android tablets, let alone smart watches & augmented reality devices.

Note: Sora supports Mastodon, Misskey & Bluesky.

Hopefully, Threads will change their minds, as it is helpful to access & post content to the Fediverse from non-traditional devices (like via Apple Watch if you are exercising or at work) when you lack access to your phone or tablet.

But if Threads remains phone-centric, Fediverse users would be wise to utilize another platform that allows them greater flexibility.

 

[bnew]

Meta just showed off Threads’ fediverse integration for the very first time

Threads’ fediverse plans are coming together.

www.theverge.com

Meta just showed off Threads’ fediverse integration for the very first time​

During the FediForum conference, Meta demonstrated what it might look like to toggle on fediverse sharing and post across multiple platforms.​

By Emma Roth, a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO.

Mar 19, 2024, 6:34 PM EDT
25 Comments

Illustration: The Verge

Threads is coming to the fediverse — and we just got our first official look at how that might work from Meta itself. During the FediForum conference on Tuesday, Meta’s Peter Cottle showed off a brief demo of how users will eventually be able to connect their accounts and posts to the fediverse. The integration will let users share their posts across different platforms through Threads, letting them reach multiple audiences at once. Meta is just one of the many platforms aiming to join the fediverse, a group of decentralized social networks aiming to become interoperable with one another.

As you can see in the video below, which FediForum shared with The Verge, Cottle can navigate to his Threads account settings and toggle on an option called “fediverse sharing.” Meta will then show a pop-up explaining what exactly the fediverse is, along with some disclaimers Meta will flag to users so they know what they’re getting into.



First, Meta notes that users will need to have a public profile to toggle on the feature, something Instagram head Adam Mosseri has already mentioned. Users in the current alpha test also can’t view replies to their posts and can only see the likes they get. Cottle says Meta is working “super hard” on changing that.

Additionally, Meta warns that Threads can’t “guarantee” that a post gets deleted on other linked platforms if a user decides to delete it on Threads. In other words, your post may still be visible on, say, a linked Mastodon server, even if you decide to delete it with Threads.

“I think this is a downside of the protocol that we use today, but I think it’s important to let people know that if you post something and another server grabs a copy, we can’t necessarily enforce it,” Cottle says.

Once fediverse sharing is enabled, users will be able to post to other services that interoperate through ActivityPub. Cottle says Threads will “wait five minutes” before sending posts out into the fediverse, during which users have a chance to edit or delete their post. If a Threads user has fediverse sharing enabled, their profiles will display a “pill” icon that other users can click into to copy their fediverse usernames.

Cottle demonstrated the process of using Threads to post to the fediverse, and you can already see how his post federated out to Mastodon.

“I know there’s a ton of skepticism about Meta entering the fediverse — it’s completely understandable,” Cottle says. “I do want to kind of make a plea that I think everyone on the team has really good intentions. We really want to be a good member of the community and give people the ability to experience what the fediverse is.”

The FediForum is an online event that gives developers the opportunity to show off what they’re working on in the fediverse. “It’s good for them, and it’s good for the rest of us to see what they’re up to,” Johannes Ernst, one of FediForum’s co-founders, tells The Verge. “They’re being transparent about what they’re building and why.”

Threads started testing an ActivityPub integration last year, and Mosseri suggested last December that Threads’ plans for the fediverse could take “the better part of a year” to pan out. Earlier this month, Threads gave Evan Prodromou, one of the creators of the ActivityPub protocol, the ability to post on both Threads and Mastodon. Threads also plans on letting users follow non-Threads fediverse accounts and letting creators take their followers with them to another platform.

 

[bnew]

 

[Trav]

They can go ahead and bush this shyt fr

Dropped the ball like a mf

 

[North of Death]

They can go ahead and bush this shyt fr

Dropped the ball like a mf

Elon ahead of his time

 

[JoelB]

this has to be a record of how quickly a social media platform got It was hot for like 72 hours and died lol

 

[PHamm]

shyt came and went like a Drake album

 

[Trav]

this has to be a record of how quickly a social media platform got It was hot for like 72 hours and died lol

Niccas lazy @ the end of the day

Nobody was tryna run over there, repost all their media, content & products. Make sure you follow EVERY single follow you had on Twitter. The older niccas get, ain't nobody tryna be runnin' from Myspace to Facebook, to Twitter to Instagram (and all of the ancillary shyt in between) lol.