Flipboard launched over 1,000 social magazines on the decentralized social web today, enabling its curators and publishers to access new audiences. The move follows the magazine app’s December announcement to link directly with the fediverse, which includes X rival Mastodon, Pixelfed, and other applications.
Flipboard, which lets users compile online material into “magazines” and share them with others, lost Twitter/X support last year after detecting a shift in social media. After Twitter, the firm adopted decentralized social media and became the first app to offer Bluesky, Mastodon, and Pixelfed (an open-source Instagram competitor) in one location last May.
APIs enabled Flipboard’s initial integrations, which let users read, like, react, and publish to their favorite applications. Flipboard announced late last year that its app will support ActivityPub, the fediverse’s networking technology. Initially, millions of decentralized social app users, including Mastodon, could find and follow certain accounts.
Flipboard said today that it has federated 1,000 publications selected by the publishers it started testing with in December and 20 additional publishing partners. The periodicals include news, lifestyle, and local journalism. Once solely accessible via Flipboard, these magazines now have their own native ActivityPub feeds that can be found on Mastodon and other federated social applications.
The business says letting customers follow magazines instead of other accounts lets them monitor their interests better. A user may like a photographer’s photos but not their politics or sports updates. Flipboard’s magazines are topical, letting users peruse news, stories, and social updates on healthy eating, climate tech, national security, and more.
Users may now follow these interests on their preferred federated app, like Mastodon. Smithsonian, Bloomberg Green, Frommer’s, The Intercept, Real Simple, Refinery29, Mashable, Medium, and others participate.
Mastodon and other federated apps show the magazine’s description and posts since federation. The business emphasizes that freshly federated periodicals may not have postings yet since their content takes time to spread around the fediverse. Click “Browse more on the original profile” to browse Flipboard posts instead. Your Mastodon or other app The following feed will show all future postings from a magazine you follow in the fediverse.
Flipboard plans to generate the remaining active and public curators and their publications after integrating the first test group with ActivityPub. Anyone who wishes to retain their magazine on Flipboard solely may opt out when the firm starts this procedure in March.
In its statement, Flipboard CEO Mike McCue remarked, “I believe that curation is core to providing people with a high-quality and inspiring social media experience, and I’m excited to begin bringing thoughtfully curated feeds to the fediverse.
He said that in addition to federating Flipboard’s other magazines, the business is preparing to introduce a new version of its app that would enable curators to view and respond to Mastodon comments, likes, and boosts.
Other social apps use ActivityPub besides Flipboard. Instagram Threads, another X competitor, is integrating ActivityPub. A WordPress plugin lets WordPress blogs post to the fediverse, along with Mozilla and Medium.
