Mastodon, the open source, decentralized social network offering an alternative to Elon Musk’s X and Meta’s Threads, is rolling out a number of updates with Tuesday’s release of Mastodon 4.4. Most notably, the app will take the first steps towards the implementation of a change that will bring it on par with other networks of its type, but may also potentially impact user behavior: it’s preparing to add Quote Posts, or what Twitter used to call Quote Tweets.
This type of repost allows users to quote another person’s post and then add their own two cents and commentary above it. On Twitter, now called X, the feature’s addition led to a culture of “dunking” where users would bash or deride another person by quoting their post and responding with their own bit of snark or insulting humor. Some argued that while dunking made Twitter entertaining, it led to more negativity on the platform instead of encouraging conversations or healthy debates.
Mastodon’s implementation of the Quote Post, however, aims to implement the feature in a way that will limit its ability to be used for hate and harassment.
As the company explained earlier this year, it will accomplish this by allowing users to control whether or not their content can be quoted and will allow users to withdraw their posts from the quoted context, if allowed, at any time. Plus, it will send you notifications when someone quotes your post.
With Mastodon 4.4, Quote Posts aren’t yet fully rolled out.
Instead, the organization is releasing the code that supports displaying the Quote Posts, which will allow users to see quotes from compatible Fediverse platforms, including future Mastodon releases. The ability to actually quote posts yourself won’t arrive until Mastodon version 4.5 later this year.
Other changes with the 4.4 release are designed to improve other areas, like profiles, navigation, lists, media controls, admin features, and more.
A new “Feature on my profile” option will let you showcase things you want to promote, like all your posts with a specific hashtag or other accounts you find interesting — perhaps others you run for your business, brand, or side project, or just those you think deserve more attention.
Meanwhile, Mastodon will now display your Pinned Posts at the top of your profile in a carousel. Because the app lets you pin up to 5 posts, having these pinned one after another made for a lot of scrolling when someone just wanted to see your more recent content.
There’s a new profile widget, too, that will show how many of the people you follow are following the person whose profile you’re viewing, which could help you expand your network.
It’s also now easier to add and remove users to Lists both directly from profiles and from your own follows and followers listings
Mastodon’s media player in 4.4 has been updated with a new design where the play and pause buttons are more centrally located and easier to click. More hotkeys have been added as well, like left and right arrows to skip around, up and down arrows for volume control, “m” for mute, and “f” for fullscreen.
On mobile, you can double-tap on photos to zoom in or pinch with your fingers to control the zoom level. To close the zoomed image, you can swipe up, similar to your native photo app. There’s also a new reminder to add alt text to images, which helps vision-impaired people better use the app.
Meanwhile, the mobile website now more closely mimics native mobile apps with action buttons in a bottom toolbar and other changes that make navigation more consistent across platforms.
Elsewhere, the “Explore” section has been renamed “Trending,” and the sidebar navigation controls have been organized into three sections — one for the main navigation buttons, another for your curated content (like Lists, Bookmarks, and Favorites), and a third for other elements.
For new users, onboarding has been reduced from a 4-step process to just 2, in the hopes of addressing concerns that it’s too complicated to get started on Mastodon for the less technically inclined.
Server admins have access to new legal compliance features, like managing Terms of Service, offering translations of server rules into different languages, and optionally setting a minimum age requirement for new
users.
The changes follow a number of other updates for the social network this year, including its announcement that it will create a new non-profit in Europe to move away from the app being run by a single individual, and other expansions to its team. More recently, Mastodon announced plans to offer additional services in the form of commercial offerings to grow its revenue. The company, for the first time last year, hosted the European Commission’s Mastodon instance, which suggests that this could be the direction it’s headed.
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