During the FediForum conference, Peter Cottle, software engineer at Meta, explained how Threads users will soon be able to link their accounts to the fediverse, a decentralized social platform network that allows sharing messages through multiple channels, expanding the audience reach.
In the demonstration, Cottle showed that users will be able to activate the “share on fediverse” option in the Threads settings, after which we will see a pop-up window with an explanation about the concept of fediverse, along with some warnings to inform users about the implications of activating this function.
Key points include the need for a public profile to share posts on the fediverse and the current inability to view replies in the alpha test (only “likes” can be seen).
Cottle stated that Meta is already working to overcome these limitations, although he warns that Threads cannot guarantee the deletion of messages on other platforms if they are deleted on Threads, highlighting a limitation of the current protocol. The Meta engineer mentioned the importance of users being aware that posts may remain visible on other servers.
With federated sharing enabled, users will be able to post on services that use ActivityPub. Threads delays posting to the fediverse for five minutes, allowing time to edit or delete the post before distribution. Profiles with this feature will have a “pill” icon, indicating the ability to access users’ fediverse usernames.
