How the 'Fediverse' Works (and Why It Might Be the Future of Social Media)
A brief, jargon-free explainer on the freer future of the social web.Idealist nerds have a long history of giving confusing names to potentially revolutionary technology. So it goes with Fediverse, a portmanteau of "Federation" and "Universe," and the potential future of the social internet. But what does that mean?
Put simply, the Fediverse is the collective name for different social networks that connect. Users on any of these services can follow users on any other one. They can respond to, like, and share posts.There are many articles and websites that explain this concept in detail. However, most of them get bogged down in technical language quickly. I'd like to avoid that, so here's my attempt to explain what the Fediverse is in plain English.
First, though, let's talk about email.Email is decentralized (and why that matters for the Fediverse)
Anyone with an email address can email anyone else. Gmail users, for example, aren't limited to talking with other Gmail users. They can send messages to Outlook users, Yahoo Mail users, and even people running their own email servers. Basically, anyone with an email address can write anyone else with an email address. To put it another way, email is decentralized.There is no single company or institution in charge of email. There are many different email providers, all of which are compatible. This is because email is an open protocol, one that anyone can build a service for.
The largest social media networks do not work this way right now. You can't follow an X user via Facebook, for example. You can't subscribe to a Reddit community from Tumblr. That's why all those websites are full of screenshots from others. People want to share posts from other sites, but there's no good way to do so. That's a problem the Fediverse seeks to remedy.Follow anyone anywhere
The Fediverse is an attempt to make social networks more like email. It allows users on different services to follow and interact with each other anywhere they want, without signing up for a million different accounts.Right now, one of the biggest services on the Fediverse is Mastodon. It started in 2016 as a Twitter alternative. Other open-source networks on the platform include Pixelfed, a photo-sharing service similar to 2010's Instagram, and Peertube. There's also Threads, a Meta-owned network that allows users to share their posts with the Fediverse.
Here’s how it works in practice: I'm active on Mastodon but have friends who only post on Threads. Since Threads connects to the Fediverse, I can follow Threads users. I can see their posts and even write comments while using Mastodon. It's as simple as searching for the Threads user from inside Mastodon, following them, and interacting like I would with any other user.This is the promise of the Fediverse: You use whatever social network you want and connect with people on whatever social network they use. There are a few other perks. When I quit using Twitter a couple of years ago, I left my followers behind. That's not how it works with the Fediverse. You can switch from one service to another and take your followers with you. That freedom isn't available from a centralized system.
A potential future for social mediaA number of companies and enthusiasts are working on ways to connect with the Fediverse. Wordpress offers a plugin that allows bloggers to share their posts. Replies show up as comments. Flipboard, the news-reading app, recently added the option to follow Fediverse users within the app. Email newsletter platform Ghost is also working on similar functionality. There are even hacks to connect other networks. For example, you can connect Bluesky to the Fediverse with some work.
There's an idealism behind these efforts. Many of the biggest Fediverse services are run by nonprofits and volunteers. However, smaller publishing companies like Ghost and Flipboard getting involved suggests that the Fediverse could also be a place for writers and publications to connect directly with readers. A decentralized social media system could also allow smaller social media upstarts to compete with big platforms. It's an exciting time for social media and the larger internet.All this is possible because the Fediverse is based on an open protocol that anyone can build on. The hope is that, over time, more services will offer integrations. Social networking will become as open as email. Will this happen for sure? I don't know. The Fediverse, like anything on the internet, has problems. Moderation, for example, is a huge challenge. Bigger platforms moving into the space could make it harder.
I'm only scratching the surface with this explanation. There's much more to dig into. For the most part, though, when you hear "the Fediverse," you'll know what it means: a series of social networks and platforms connected to each other. You'll hopefully hear a lot more about it in the years to come.
Put simply, the Fediverse is the collective name for different social networks that connect. Users on any of these services can follow users on any other one. They can respond to, like, and share posts.There are many articles and websites that explain this concept in detail. However, most of them get bogged down in technical language quickly. I'd like to avoid that, so here's my attempt to explain what the Fediverse is in plain English.
First, though, let's talk about email.Email is decentralized (and why that matters for the Fediverse)
Anyone with an email address can email anyone else. Gmail users, for example, aren't limited to talking with other Gmail users. They can send messages to Outlook users, Yahoo Mail users, and even people running their own email servers. Basically, anyone with an email address can write anyone else with an email address. To put it another way, email is decentralized.There is no single company or institution in charge of email. There are many different email providers, all of which are compatible. This is because email is an open protocol, one that anyone can build a service for.
The largest social media networks do not work this way right now. You can't follow an X user via Facebook, for example. You can't subscribe to a Reddit community from Tumblr. That's why all those websites are full of screenshots from others. People want to share posts from other sites, but there's no good way to do so. That's a problem the Fediverse seeks to remedy.Follow anyone anywhere
The Fediverse is an attempt to make social networks more like email. It allows users on different services to follow and interact with each other anywhere they want, without signing up for a million different accounts.Right now, one of the biggest services on the Fediverse is Mastodon. It started in 2016 as a Twitter alternative. Other open-source networks on the platform include Pixelfed, a photo-sharing service similar to 2010's Instagram, and Peertube. There's also Threads, a Meta-owned network that allows users to share their posts with the Fediverse.
Here’s how it works in practice: I'm active on Mastodon but have friends who only post on Threads. Since Threads connects to the Fediverse, I can follow Threads users. I can see their posts and even write comments while using Mastodon. It's as simple as searching for the Threads user from inside Mastodon, following them, and interacting like I would with any other user.This is the promise of the Fediverse: You use whatever social network you want and connect with people on whatever social network they use. There are a few other perks. When I quit using Twitter a couple of years ago, I left my followers behind. That's not how it works with the Fediverse. You can switch from one service to another and take your followers with you. That freedom isn't available from a centralized system.
A potential future for social mediaA number of companies and enthusiasts are working on ways to connect with the Fediverse. Wordpress offers a plugin that allows bloggers to share their posts. Replies show up as comments. Flipboard, the news-reading app, recently added the option to follow Fediverse users within the app. Email newsletter platform Ghost is also working on similar functionality. There are even hacks to connect other networks. For example, you can connect Bluesky to the Fediverse with some work.
There's an idealism behind these efforts. Many of the biggest Fediverse services are run by nonprofits and volunteers. However, smaller publishing companies like Ghost and Flipboard getting involved suggests that the Fediverse could also be a place for writers and publications to connect directly with readers. A decentralized social media system could also allow smaller social media upstarts to compete with big platforms. It's an exciting time for social media and the larger internet.All this is possible because the Fediverse is based on an open protocol that anyone can build on. The hope is that, over time, more services will offer integrations. Social networking will become as open as email. Will this happen for sure? I don't know. The Fediverse, like anything on the internet, has problems. Moderation, for example, is a huge challenge. Bigger platforms moving into the space could make it harder.
I'm only scratching the surface with this explanation. There's much more to dig into. For the most part, though, when you hear "the Fediverse," you'll know what it means: a series of social networks and platforms connected to each other. You'll hopefully hear a lot more about it in the years to come.