Threads Users Can Now See Their Followers From the Fediverse

Meta is continuing to improve how Threads, its Twitter/X clone is integrating with the fediverse. While Threads users can already share their publications to Mastodon servers and other fediverse-enabled platforms, the app now started showing users who follow them from the fediverse.

“Starting today, people who have turned on sharing to the fediverse can see who follows them and likes their content from other fediverse servers,” explained Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram on Threads. Information about likes coming from the fediverse is visible by checking post activity, while the list of followers from the fediverse is visible at the top of a user’s followers list. Again, this information only appear on Threads profiles where fediverse sharing is enabled.

Overall, these improvements should help to make the fediverse a slightly less abstract concept. While it’s good that Threads now displays activity coming from the fediverse, Threads users will still need to visit other servers for other interactions.

On a related note, Threads has also extended today the time window for editing posts to 15 minutes. This change will also impact fediverse sharing, as Threads posts will now be published to the fediverse after this edit window is closed.

As of today, sharing to the fediverse is only available for Threads users who are 18 or older, have a public profile, and are located outside of the EU. Enabling fediverse sharing comes with privacy implication as posts that are shared on other servers are not moderated by Meta. Moreover, turning off fediverse sharing on Threads doesn’t guarantee that other servers will delete all previously shared content.