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How to cross-post your Threads posts to the fediverse

How to cross-post your Threads posts to the fediverse

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The different social networks are starting to come together.

By Barbara Krasnoff, a reviews editor who manages how-tos. She’s worked as an editor and writer for almost 40 years. Previously, she was a senior reviews editor for Computerworld.

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Vector collage showing various aspects of using Threads.
Image: The Verge

It looks like the fediverse is 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.

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If you’re a Threads user from one of these three countries and want to give this beta a try, it’s not difficult. You can do it from the mobile app or the web version:

  • On Threads’ mobile app, tap your profile icon in the lower-right corner, tap the two lines in the upper-right corner, and select Account > Fediverse sharing.
  • On the web version, tap the two lines in the upper right, then select Settings > the Account tab > Fediverse sharing.
Settings for Threads on the web showing several account options.
Look for the “Fediverse sharing” option in your Settings.

Once you select Fediverse sharing, you will be moved through a series of explanatory screens that tell you what the fediverse is and how sharing works (you will need a public profile) and warn you that once your post is out in the fediverse, Threads has no control over the rules of the servers it lands on. If you stop sharing, Meta can request that any previously shared posts be removed from another server, but that’s all.

Pop-up window headed Turn on fediverse sharing? and with two buttons at bottom labeled Turn on sharing and Keep sharing off.
Before you choose to share, you are given a variety of warnings.

The last screen warns you that:

  • Users of other servers can share your post with whomever they like.
  • In the beta version, you can’t see replies or follows from those on other servers — at least not yet.
  • As mentioned previously, Threads has no control over whether your post is deleted on other servers.
  • And it reassures you that you can always turn sharing off if you’d like.

And that’s it! A brief pop-up tells you, “You are now sharing to the fediverse.”

So what does that all mean?

It means, according to Meta, that “your Threads profile can be followed by people using different servers on the fediverse, and eventually, you’ll be able to follow them from Threads.” If you’ve turned your sharing on and you select “Fediverse sharing,” you’ll be reminded of your username and told that you can now connect and share with others in the fediverse.

And it’s working! At least at a basic level. I signed in to my Mastodon account and did a search for my Threads profile — and found it.

Mastodon web site showing search results for Barbara Krasnoff.
From my Mastodon account, I was able to follow my Threads account.
Two posts in Threads, the first from 2 fediverse users, and the second from 3 fediverse users.
A couple of shared posts as seen in Threads.

How significant this is depends on how well cross-posting works in the future, how smooth the process becomes, and what kinds of security measures are put into place to prevent bad actors from using it to invade servers that are meant to be safe spaces, among other issues. But this could be the beginning of a much more comprehensive type of social networking.

Update April 2nd, 9:55AM ET: A sentence was altered to clarify that Meta can only request any previously federated posts be removed from other servers.

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