Flipboard, a Web 2.0-era social magazine app that is reinventing itself to capitalize on the renewed push toward an open social web, is strengthening its ties to the fediverse, a social network of interconnected servers that includes apps such as Mastodon, Pixelfed, PeerTube, and, eventually, Instagram Threads, among others. On Thursday, the business stated that it would extend its fediverse integrations to 400 additional Flipboard artists and add fediverse alerts to the Flipboard app itself.
The latter will enable Flipboard users to see their new followers and other activities related to the material they post on the fediverse immediately inside the Flipboard app. This follows last year’s Mastodon integration, which replaced Twitter, as well as support for ActivityPub, the social networking protocol that powers open-source, decentralized social networks such as Mastodon and others.
Flipboard said in February that it will begin to integrate its creators and their social magazines into the fediverse, allowing the curated magazines of links and other social postings that its artists generally publish inside the Flipboard app to reach a larger audience. Flipboard’s publishing partners created their own native ActivityPub feeds by sharing author posts and links with the rest of the fediverse, allowing Mastodon users and those on other federated social applications to find them. The first effort toward federation began with 1,000 Flipboard publications and now includes 400 more. Federated social networking users now have access to over 11,000 curated Flipboard publications, according to Flipboard. 
“This is a major step toward fully federating our platform,” said Flipboard CEO Mike McCue in a statement. “We’re not only making curated material on Flipboard visible but also allowing two-way communication so consumers can observe activity and interact with fediverse communities. Personally, it has increased my excitement about my curation because I know it is reaching out to new individuals who share my interests.”
The extended collection of accounts comprises public accounts with one or two public magazines, activity curated during the last 30 days, and no trust or safety infractions. They have also engaged in Flipboard’s community activities. We will notify accounts of their federated status via email.
Flipboard is attempting to federate its users’ accounts by default, but users can “unfederate” by disabling the “Federate” option in their Flipboard settings.
In addition to the newly federated publications, Flipboard is updating its own app to provide a more integrated fediverse experience. With the release of version 4.3.25 on Thursday, Flipboard users will be able to view their new fediverse followers on their profile, and their Flipboard alerts will also feature fediverse reactions and conversations.
This notification window will now have three sections: replies, activity, and news. Users will be able to read and respond to posts from people on both Flipboard and the fediverse, as well as any other fediverse @mentions. Flipboard becomes a more comprehensive fediverse client app than previously when users answer and relay their response back to the fediverse. Meanwhile, the Activity page will display users’ likes, follows, and boosts (the fediverse’s equivalent of a retweet), as well as other Flipboard activities. The News section (formerly known as Content) will now include breaking news and other items suggested by Flipboard’s editorial staff.
The firm has already started curating information for fediverse users via a few “news desks” (special fediverse accounts) that steered users to relevant articles and links on various themes. There is a general news desk, as well as those for technology, culture, and science. This previous curation may help feed Flipboard’s newly renamed news section.
