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Instagram Threads is n’t the only app link up the decentralized social entanglement , which includes Twitter / X rivalMastodonand other apps , with itsnewly add musical accompaniment for the networking protocol ActivityPub . Today , the social powder store app Flipboard isannouncingit has also now desegregate with ActityPub . In its initial phase angle , select Flipboard news report will be discoverable and can be stick with by the millions of substance abuser of decentralized social apps , including Mastodon . Over time , all profile on Flipboard will be available in the fediverse , as this connection of decentralised social apps is known .
The companyannounced its intention in the beginning this yearto enter in the fediverse . It commence by integrating its app with Mastodon via an API and setting up its own Mastodon waiter , flipboard.social , onwards of full ActivityPub integrating . This allowed Flipboard to get a feel for the human race of decentralised societal medium , and learn how its users would answer . It also gave Flipboard a way to stay connected to social media after Twitter / X increased its API fee for third - party developers , making itunsustainablefor many developers to continue to solve with the company .
The Flipboard app ’s principal purpose has been to curate into social “ powder magazine ” news and information found on the web , including links to article , photos and other social posts . As a result , it had relied on Twitter as one of its sources of data . That change this twelvemonth , when Flipboard shifted its Twitter integration over toMastodon and another alternate social app , Bluesky . It also set up its own Mastodon server and begancurating news across the fediversevia column “ desk ” focused on improving the discovery of news on Mastodon .
All this was in the tether - up to make Flipboard itself a federated societal app , a appendage that ’s kicking off today .
Initially , Flipboard is testing the desegregation with select account , including publishing firm like Semafor , Pitchfork , Fast Company , Medium , LGBTQ Nation , Refinery 29 , Digiday , Polygon , SPIN , Kotaku , Frommer ’s , The Verge , Smithsonian Magazine , Refinery 29 , The Root , ScienceAlert , AFAR Media and others . While many are focused on news , there are also some nonprofits likeThe News Literacy Projectand education - focused news show siteThe 74,in this first appearance lean .
“ As we said in the earlier part of this twelvemonth , we will be embracing ActivityPub into Flipboard and in effect reworking our whole backend to that , ” explained Flipboard CEO Mike McCue , in a conversation with TechCrunch about the issue forth changes . He enunciate the company had first integrated with Mastodon at the API degree , so users could log into their Mastodon account , see those posts and interact with others in the fediverse from Flipboard . “ But you had to have an business relationship on all those political platform , ” McCue noted .
“ What we ’re announcing on Monday is fundamentally our roadmap for how we will be rolling out ActivityPub , and effectively tearing down the walls around our own walled garden , ” he added .
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With the modification , when Flipboard users curate an clause or C. W. Post into one of their societal cartridge clip on Flipboard ’s app , with an optional gossip , that “ flip , ” as it ’s called , will also appear as a Emily Price Post on their new flipboard.com Mastodon account . This is not the same server as Flipboard had plant up before ( flipboard.social ) , which was a place to try out with decentralized social media . alternatively , it ’s the Flipboard app itself that ’s now connected to the fediverse . drug user ’ posts on Mastodon will admit a tie both to the clause being flipped and to the user ’s Flipboard magazine , while the exploiter visibility will orient to their Flipboard visibility page .
As this rolls out , all Flipboard substance abuser will have one Flipboard.com account connected to the fediverse , even if they host numerous Flipboard cartridge holder . That ’s not ideal as their magazine may focus on different topics . But McCue believe that Mastodon could one day stand a whim of torpedo - feeds that would allow more distinction .
exploiter will be able-bodied to opt out of having their “ flips ” posted on Mastodon , but being opted - in will be the default option experience . The company expects to have all its user account connected to the fediverse by the end of January . ( This wo n’t touch on any magazines set to “ secret ” on Flipboard . Those will remain private , McCue note . )
Today , Flipboard has over 10,000 publishers of societal magazines on its app and over a quarter million individual who are curating content using Flipboard ’s app . Given that Mastodon today has around1.5 million monthly active exploiter , this could be a notable bump for the fediverse when Flipboard ’s integration to the full wrap out , assuming Flipboard ’s user do n’t prefer out .
Flipboard is only one of now several company that has embrace decentralized social media . In addition to go rival Instagram Threads , which begantesting ActivityPub last hebdomad , other technical school company are moving in this direction , as well . Automattic made it possiblefor all WordPress.organdWordPress.com blogs to become federated , and saidit ’s working on doing the same with Tumblr next year . MediumandMozilla have also countersink up their own server , and the latter backeda Mastodon client called Mammoth , too .
For Flipboard , after desegregate its back end with the fediverse , the company may reconsider what its front ending should look like , too , for this new age of social medium .
“ The front end was work up at a time pre - federation , ” note McCue . “ What are the conditional relation of federation in the front end ? How do we think about curation and all the things , all the capabilities and tools that we ’ve created over the years ? How does that work in a worldly concern that ’s federalize , and from a user experience stage of view ? That is a gravid query , ” he said .
Despite all the changes , Flipboard is not in need of raising funds to support its unexampled ontogenesis . It ’s run off the profits of its own business as it moves in this focussing .
The company is also betting on the fact that federate social media may only be the commencement of what ’s to derive for the web overall .
“ I saw what was happening with ActivityPub and it became very clear to me that this is the future of the vane , period of time , ” McCue say . “ The societal World Wide Web is people connect to varlet and masses link to the great unwashed . So it ’s a much more intricate web . ”
He see Flipboard as a part of that chance . “ There require to be a way to do discovery and search and have it be beautiful and round-eyed and easy to habituate . That is what we ’re focused on , ” McCue added .
