Engage a Wider Audience With ActivityPub on WordPress.com

The fediverse has arrived at WordPress.com.

October 11, 2023

Matthias Pfefferle

Exciting times are here for all WordPress.com users! The revolutionary ActivityPub feature is now available across all WordPress.com plans, unlocking a world of engagement and interaction for your blog. Your blogs can now be part of the rapidly expanding fediverse, which enables you to connect with a broader audience and attract more followers.

Let’s dive into what this means for all WordPress.com blogs.

What is the “fediverse”?

The fediverse consists of federated platforms like Mastodon, which are networks of independent websites or servers that can communicate with each other while still operating individually. It’s much like email; you can send emails to users with accounts on different services (like Gmail, Yahoo, etc.), yet all of them can interact seamlessly. Similarly, federated platforms enable users to follow, share, and interact with content across different services in a unified network.

What is the ActivityPub plugin?

ActivityPub is a WordPress plugin that facilitates seamless integration between your blog and a host of federated platforms, including Mastodon, Pleroma, Friendica, and more. This plugin empowers your readers to follow your blog posts on these platforms. 

In addition, replies to your posts from these platforms are automatically turned into comments on your WordPress blog, creating a more interactive and dynamic conversation around your content. Synchronicity for the win!

Transform your blog into a fediverse profile

Your WordPress blog can now become a profile for the fediverse. This means your readers can follow you and receive all the latest posts from your blog directly on their preferred platform. More so, they can engage in enriching conversations by replying to your posts, with their replies reflecting as comments on your blog post, creating a synchronized and interactive experience.

On Free, Personal, and Premium sites, you can enter the fediverse through your settings (see how below); for Business and Commerce sites, simply install the ActivityPub plugin and follow the prompts to set up your profile.    

Getting started is a breeze

  1. From your blog’s dashboard, go to Settings > Discussion and activate the feature by toggling “Enter the fediverse.”
  2. Make note of your default fediverse profile name. In the example above, it’s the alias openprotocolfanblog.wordpress.com@openprotocolfanblog.wordpress.com. Your alias will be unique to you, of course, and will be far more memorable with a custom domain! (More on that below.)
  3. Follow your new profile on a federated platform, such as Mastodon.
  4. Share your profile name with others so they can follow your blog on federated platforms.

Remember, this feature is applicable to new posts only; and it might take up to 15 minutes for new posts to appear on federated platforms.

Why use a custom domain?

Upgrading to a domain doesn’t just give your profile a professional touch:

  • A shorter custom domain is simply more memorable than the default name provided.  
  • It ensures your profile is uniquely identifiable, making it easier for users across the fediverse to find and interact with your content. 
  • With a custom domain you can easily move your entire fediverse connection to any host at any time. 

Make new connections today!

Take advantage of this new opportunity to extend your blog’s reach, connect with diverse audiences, and create engaging dialogues. It only takes seconds to enable this simple yet powerful feature on WordPress.com. And remember, upgrading to a domain not only emphasizes your unique identity but also enhances profile portability. So, why wait? Dive in and showcase your content to the world!

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117 Comments

Comments are closed.

  1. quadzillabynorth Oct 11th at 4:38 pm

    When I go to Settings/Discussion on my Remium Blog I do not see a Fedeverse toggle and my Discussion Settings page does not look like the one in your post.

    Liked by 7 people

  2. ogeobasi Oct 11th at 4:54 pm

    Good

    Liked by 6 people

  3. Thisness Oct 11th at 5:28 pm

    When will WordPress Reader be able to follow Fediverse accounts?

    Liked by 14 people

  4. LoveLifeHappiness&More💙💙 Oct 11th at 8:20 pm

    Thanks for sharing

    Liked by 4 people

  5. Robin Millette Oct 11th at 9:03 pm

    Can we follow https://wordpress.com/blog/ on the fediverse?

    Liked by 7 people

  6. bbensonmmondesi Oct 11th at 9:38 pm

    Love this idea we will share with friends

    Liked by 5 people

  7. hierarchyangels10 Oct 11th at 10:26 pm

    in need of security with emails and harm reduction please and thank you with the clergy_hierarchy

    Liked by 4 people

  8. Chris Hayes Oct 12th at 12:03 am

    Is this post on the Fediverse, can I retoot this post?

    Liked by 5 people

  9. Dave Clark Oct 12th at 12:51 am

    I’m trying to follow my own blog from my personal Mastodon account and I’m seeing “Cancel Follow Request” whereas others on Masto just get to follow?

    Liked by 6 people

  10. Russ Oct 12th at 2:10 am

    This is amazing. Does this also work with WordPress based podcasts too?

    Liked by 5 people

  11. Richard Morrison Oct 12th at 2:22 am

    This is very exciting for a more open/shared version of a social media future! Love it.

    Liked by 12 people

  12. kolambageranga Oct 12th at 2:27 am

    Good

    Liked by 4 people

  13. danyork Oct 12th at 3:27 am

    Love this! Thank you for adding this capability in for WordPress.com accounts! It works and is so easy to setup.

    Liked by 6 people

  14. lifesir1976gmailcom Oct 12th at 6:28 am

    Thanks for help ⚘

    Liked by 5 people

  15. winniekeneth03 Oct 12th at 10:01 am

    so good i love it

    Liked by 5 people

  16. CarolCooks2 Oct 12th at 10:49 am

    I already pay for a custom domain name can I use that one?

    Liked by 4 people

  17. sarojsalelkar Oct 12th at 11:42 am

    Is it available for free account on jetpack app?

    Liked by 4 people

  18. mmabathotshabalala73 Oct 12th at 11:45 am

    Yes in did

    Liked by 4 people

  19. David Thrift Oct 12th at 1:11 pm

    This sounds cool. I recently started a new blog (again – don’t judge me lol) and am planning on getting a custom domain for it. I’ll have to make a Mastodon account to get into this fediverse thing and then I’ll set up the connection described here after I get a short domain name so that people can follow it. I think it’s great that wordpress.com has been working hard to provide alternate connections to other communities such as Mastodon since Twitter went crazy with it’s API requirements. Thanks!

    Liked by 3 people

  20. Eugi Oct 12th at 1:48 pm

    This is exciting. I signed up both my blogs with Fediverse.

    Liked by 4 people

  21. Rochelle | Adventuresfromelle Oct 12th at 3:32 pm

    These platforms are new to me but I’m always happy to have my site reach new audiences.

    Liked by 4 people

  22. stitchesswitches Oct 12th at 5:23 pm

    Hi word press i dont know how to contact u but everytime i try to get into my acount it says continue and when press it it reloods to continue again and agin please fix!!!! Btw im new

    Liked by 3 people

  23. Tazeen Aziz Oct 12th at 5:43 pm

    Great 👍

    Liked by 2 people

  24. Byron Graham Oct 12th at 7:52 pm

    After playing with this I have two observations: One, editing an older post sends it out into the Fediverse. Two, the plugin doesn’t seem to use the “excerpt” settings on posts.

    Liked by 12 people

    • supernovia Oct 12th at 9:21 pm

      Thanks for the feedback on this! We’ll share it with the team.

      Liked by 1 person

    • supernovia Oct 12th at 10:15 pm

      OK: here’s what I’ve learned! On plugin-enabled sites using our Business or eCommerce plans, you’ll be able to change the template to just share the excerpt if you’d like.

      About it sharing older posts: that does happen, but it won’t show on most users’ feeds since it’s not new.

      Liked by 2 people

  25. Kasanje Oct 12th at 10:21 pm

    Will there be analytical data for content that is being served to this other platform?

    Liked by 2 people

  26. Emmanuel Ezekiel Oct 12th at 10:54 pm

    My customization is telling me failed why??

    Liked by 2 people

  27. Michelle Oct 13th at 3:14 am

    When I use the link it says “free on Business Plan. Upgrade and activate.”

    Liked by 3 people

  28. Franklin “Dee” Summers Oct 13th at 5:16 am

    I would just like to say that WordPress is an amazing site, and I’m very thankful that I took a chance on downloading the app and giving it a chance to show me and apparently many other people how to start their own websites and help promote their business or writing and getting published, etc.

    Liked by 5 people

  29. David Thrift Oct 13th at 5:27 am

    I know you guys really don’t like us asking questions on your posts and I should probably ask in tbe forum, but so many are discussing this here anyway. So I’m curious about something? Once you set your blog up with the federated address, does your blog automatically send your posts out to Mastodon, or do you actually need to give people that address so they can follow you directly? I think maybe some more information in the Support pages about this would be very helpful, and again, thanks for making this possible.

    Liked by 4 people

    • Matthias Pfefferle Oct 16th at 8:25 pm

      If you just enable the integration, it won’t send anything to Mastodon or other platforms. You have to give your address to people/visitors first so that the integration knows who to send the posts to.

      We have created a block for this case that helps your visitors to subscribe to your site. Just search for “Follow me on the Fediverse” when adding a new block.

      We’re also working on better onboarding for this usecase right now, and will adjust the help accordingly as well.

      Liked by 2 people

  30. Cosucoe Oct 13th at 6:59 am

    Glad to see this… People marooned on social media islands, need to make the jump to their own domains.

    Liked by 5 people

  31. 阿良 Oct 13th at 9:51 am

    Hi! Thank you for this amazing update!

    I put my blog into fediverse one day ago using the discussion setup.
    However, although I am able to follow the blog from different instances (both mastodon and pleroma), the newest blog post is not popping up on the fediverse timeline (after following the account of course).

    Besides, the mastodon instance with above v4.2 (for example mastodon.social)is giving a error code 500 every time I open the blog profile on the local instance…

    Is this a bug at this moment? Is there anything I can do to fix it?

    Liked by 5 people

    • Matthias Pfefferle Oct 16th at 8:29 pm

      This is a problem that came with Mastodon 4.2 and we are aware of it are searching for a fix. It seems to be only an issue with the Mastodon UI and does not break the functionality.

      Liked by 4 people

      • 阿良 Oct 16th at 9:24 pm

        Hi Matthias, thank you very much for your reply!

        I have published another post 2 days ago, it had no problem going on mastodon!!
        However, I still can’t see the post from any pleroma instance… neither by following the blog, nor by searching the post link…

        Liked by 1 person

      • Elizabeth Tai Oct 17th at 1:02 pm

        Having the same problem with my other blog. I take it we can’t do anything to fix this ourselves?

        Liked by 1 person

  32. 江尚寒 Oct 13th at 2:00 pm

    This is great and helps us collect reviews directly through this site.
    The address seems overly long, but that’s not a too serious problem.

    Liked by 3 people

  33. Elizabeth Tai Oct 13th at 11:46 pm

    I was waiting so long for this and it’s finally out! Yipee. Thank you for your hard work and being supportive of the Fediverse.

    Liked by 3 people

  34. Caetyl Oct 14th at 9:34 pm

    I don’t have a store , I’m telling you for the fifth time stop charging me and refund last month’s payments. I paid for a tear and you are still taking 78 a month twice a month. I closed store 2 months ago. If I am charged again or not refunded we are going to Court. How many times are you gonna charge a person who closed 2 months ago. It was a total scam . […] I only had 1 store, realized it was a scam and closed. But you keep charging me even though I paid for a year. Check out my WordPress apps and see how many I paid that you have to refund. I DON’T HAVE A STORE FOLDED IT 2 MONTHS AGO. PLEASE STOP CHARGING AND REFUND LAST 2 MONTHS. THIS IS A JOKE!

    Liked by 5 people

  35. wildbrezzy Oct 14th at 9:47 pm

    Hey 👋👋 How I can Increase SEO without Plugs

    Liked by 2 people

  36. Keith Devereux Oct 15th at 11:03 am

    This is a really useful addition to WordPress, and to the Fediverse. Well done. I did follow the instructions and it seems to work, but when I try to follow my blog on Mastodon it says ‘Follow Requested’ and then I can’t authorise the follow either in WordPress or Mastodon. The Curator on my instance has suggested it is something to do with Auth_Fetch. I have tried Support (the answer from the AI was ‘I don’t know the answer’) and it is with the Forums, so all I can do is wait. However, it is an encouragement to improve the standard of my blog for those who can follow it. Thank you again. K #modlook

    Liked by 4 people

  37. infodcce5874e29 Oct 15th at 11:10 am

    I can have it in flamish please

    Liked by 3 people

  38. Sitawa Wes Oct 16th at 9:07 pm

    Good

    Liked by 1 person

  39. Sanaullah Mangnejo Sarem Oct 16th at 11:40 pm

    Hello 👋
    Most of the SEO Plugins including AIO SEO don’t work with Web Stories. Why It is unable to load Key Phrases?

    Liked by 1 person

  40. Lady Vee Cueto Oct 17th at 12:20 pm

    hello , i already create an an account, when i have an account we can post the details we can offer a lot of things

    Liked by 2 people

  41. vammanenrulla Oct 17th at 12:45 pm

    Wow!

    Liked by 1 person

  42. Palmer Dennis Oct 17th at 3:39 pm

    How can I start up my WordPress?

    Liked by 3 people

  43. alshakero Oct 18th at 3:46 pm

    Thanks for this feature!

    Liked by 3 people

  44. Dorin Karin Oct 18th at 9:47 pm

    Hello

    Liked by 1 person

  45. lucy amara Oct 19th at 8:10 am

    can I earn money through subdomain

    Liked by 3 people

  46. Isla Becker Oct 20th at 1:20 am

    How do you get paid if you have a blog?

    Liked by 1 person

  47. blackbrucewaynejr Oct 20th at 2:57 am

    Do you have to have a domain to earn any money?

    Liked by 1 person

  48. lubnanoor785 Oct 21st at 5:36 am

    How can earn money online?

    Liked by 1 person

  49. farhaanfk Oct 22nd at 7:24 am

    Thanks

    Liked by 1 person

  50. NAVRATAN Oct 22nd at 11:10 am

    How can we earn

    Liked by 1 person

  51. Our Wondeful Green Future Oct 23rd at 1:29 am

    I’m all set up here: https://owgf.org/
    It’s a bit hit and miss with posts sometimes appearing on Mastodon and sometimes not. I can see a comment but I can’t comment back, via my WordPress Blog. It would be nice to have some extra control over how post appear too. This is a great first step.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Matthias Pfefferle Oct 27th at 5:16 am

      > I can see a comment but I can’t comment back, via my WordPress Blog.

      We are currently working on exactly that feature.

      > It would be nice to have some extra control over how post appear too.

      Can you elaborate on that? Do you miss something specific? Maybe we can add the missing informations.

      Liked by 2 people

  52. Gibran FR Oct 23rd at 3:49 am

    Mmm…

    Liked by 2 people

  53. mamesadbouh Oct 23rd at 2:22 pm

    Can il eart money through

    Liked by 1 person

  54. David Buckle Oct 23rd at 5:44 pm

    We let it go; and not too worried over promotion.
    No need in truth.

    Liked by 2 people

  55. Cosucoe Oct 23rd at 11:29 pm

    Needs a “Save for Later“ button, methinks

    Liked by 2 people

  56. 247tags Oct 24th at 10:57 am

    I got to use this tool. thank you for sharing.

    Liked by 4 people

  57. Lyon Coffee Oct 25th at 9:37 am

    hay

    Liked by 2 people

  58. Sayba “Saliima” Cabdi Oct 25th at 4:10 pm

    Cool

    Liked by 6 people

  59. Caetyl Oct 26th at 7:50 pm

    Sorry for misspellingd they keep charging it’s the fact that I’m livid. They will charge you whether you cancel or not, be on your guard. No small amounts neither one was for 323.00. They are a scam company as is woo commerce drop shipping. You can’t compete, it’s impossible.

    Liked by 1 person

  60. fxbrokeragesetup Nov 3rd at 9:49 am

    good

    Liked by 2 people

  61. Luwisa Flores Nov 4th at 8:53 pm

    How can i make blog?

    Liked by 2 people

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