Threads opens beta to let users connect their accounts to the fediverse

Threads has officially entered the fediverse. Meta announced on Thursday that its beta experience of sharing Threads accounts to the fediverse is now open to users ages 18 and up with public profiles. The integration is only available in three countries to start, including the U.S., Canada, and Japan.

The company previously announced in December that it was testing the feature on Mastodon and other ActivityPub protocol-supported networks.

To opt into the integration, go to account settings and toggle on fediverse sharing. A pop-up will appear explaining what the fediverse is, which the company describes as a “social network of interconnected servers” where people can “follow other people on different servers to see and interact with their content–similar to how email allows people to communicate regardless of the services they choose.”

Once turned on, people on other servers (Mastodon, for example) can find your Threads profile and like, repost, and share your posts with multiple audiences. This gives you the chance to connect with other people who may not be on Threads but use alternative social networking apps.

However, there are limitations. For instance, you won’t be able to see on Threads who replied or liked your posts from other servers. You also can’t share posts with polls. During the FediForum conference earlier this week, Meta’s Peter Cottle mentioned in his demo that the company was working on changing this.

Despite the drawbacks, it’s still notable that Meta is making Threads part of the decentralized social network system after only launching the app just eight months ago.