{"id":28886,"date":"2026-03-26T21:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T21:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=28886"},"modified":"2026-03-26T21:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T21:29:13","slug":"mastodon-is-making-its-decentralized-social-network-easier-to-use-with-its-latest-revamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=28886","title":{"rendered":"Mastodon is making its decentralized social network easier to use with its latest revamp"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Mastodon is making changes<\/a> in the hopes of making its social networking service more appealing and easier to use, especially for more mainstream users looking for an alternative to X or Threads.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the decentralized social networking software maker said it\u2019s redesigning a key part of its platform by giving people\u2019s user profiles a new look, which it hopes will appeal to organizations, as well as individuals.<\/p>\n

Built on the ActivityPub protocol, Mastodon<\/a> became better known after Elon Musk acquired Twitter,<\/a> now called X, which led some to seek alternatives. The platform\u2019s appeal is its decentralized nature, meaning a single company doesn\u2019t have control of the algorithm, and users can move their accounts if they don\u2019t like how a particular server operates or moderates its community.<\/p>\n

However, this system is also more complicated compared with signing up for a traditional social network like X. On Mastodon, users have to pick a server to join and have different timelines (local and federated), which can be confusing to newcomers. The process for following others on the service can be cumbersome, too.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s left Mastodon struggling to pick up more users, numbers that now hover at around 800,000 monthly actives, down from a million<\/a> at the height of the Twitter drama.<\/p>\n

Mastodon has been working in more recent months to address various pain points that could alienate users. In February, it simplified the onboarding process<\/a> and added other features users expect, like Quote Posts or \u201cstarter packs\u201d called Collections.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s tackling user profiles<\/a>. The revamped version makes several changes, many of which are visual in nature.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s changing<\/h2>\n

Instead of offering two views of a person\u2019s posts (\u201cposts\u201d or \u201cposts and replies\u201d), similar to X, profiles feature just one \u201cActivity\u201d tab with a dropdown menu. This lets users configure other combinations of posts, by toggling on or off replies and boosts \u2014 the latter being Mastodon\u2019s version of the repost. <\/p>\n

Hashtags also now appear at the top of this Activity tab, allowing users to filter the posts on that account by the tag they click on.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Image Credits:<\/strong>Mastodon<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mastodon also ditched the pinned posts carousel, which many users didn\u2019t like. The feature was meant to balance the needs of those who wanted to pin several posts, with the needs of those visiting a profile to quickly get to the user\u2019s recent posts. Now Mastodon users with multiple pinned posts will have one featured, while the rest can be revealed by clicking on a new \u201cView all pinned posts\u201d button.<\/p>\n

Another change is designed to explain Mastodon handles to newcomers. Unlike on X or Threads, where users are just @username, Mastodon handles have two @\u2019s in them \u2014 one referencing their account name and the other their server\u2019s name. A new informational pop-up explains this. <\/p>\n

\"\"
Image Credits:<\/strong>Mastodon<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Users have more control over how their profile appears, too, with options to hide the \u201cMedia\u201d or \u201cFeatured\u201d tabs, if desired, or hide replies from their \u201cMedia\u201d tab if they want to showcase their work. <\/p>\n

Custom fields on the profile, where users add things like links, pronouns, and other information, are displayed side-by-side, which means there\u2019s more vertical space available on the screen. These fields can now be modified on iOS and Android, too, not just the web. <\/p>\n

\"\"
Image Credits:<\/strong>Mastodon<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other tweaks to the design make profiles seem less cluttered \u2014 like the removal of a \u201cfollowing you\u201d badge, and moving the optional \u201cpersonal note\u201d users add to their profiles to an overflow menu. <\/p>\n

Profile edits can now all be done from one place in the account settings, allowing users to manage tasks like their featured hashtags (which Mastodon helpfully now suggests), links, and other profile information.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Image Credits:<\/strong>Mastodon<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Link verification \u2014 which is Mastodon\u2019s tool to establish someone\u2019s credibility without becoming a centralized authority (or requiring payment, as on X) \u2014 is no longer buried in settings. Users can crop and add alt text to their profile images and cover photos.<\/p>\n

The changes will initially be available to the mastodon.social server and other servers that opt to run the nightly build. More servers will get the update when the Mastodon 4.6 software update arrives in a few weeks. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mastodon is making changes in … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[249],"tags":[724,10452,16607,6827,930,780],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}