Fediverse
The fediverse (a portmanteau of "federation" and "universe") is an ensemble of social networks, which, while independently hosted, can communicate with each other. ActivityPub, a W3C standard, is the most widely used protocol that powers the fediverse. Users on different websites can send and receive updates from others across the network. Noted fediverse platforms include Mastodon, Lemmy, PeerTube, and Pixelfed.

Nearly all fediverse platforms are free and open-source software.
History

The term "fediverse" was first used to describe the network formed by software using the OStatus protocol, such as GNU Social, Mastodon, and Friendica.[1]
In January 2018, the W3C presented the ActivityPub protocol, aiming to improve the interoperability between different software packages run on a wide network of servers. By 2019, a majority of software that was previously using OStatus had switched to ActivityPub,[2] and the term "fediverse" came to refer to the ActivityPub-based federated network.
Certain social networks, including Threads and Tumblr, have expressed interest in adding fediverse-compatibility.[3]
Design
While a traditional social networking site will host all its content on servers owned by the parent company, the decentralized social media sites that make up the fediverse allow any individual or organization to host their own servers (referred to as an "instance").
Every instance is independent, and can set its own rules and expectations. Even so, much like how users of one email service such as Gmail can still send emails to users of another service such as Outlook, users may still view content and interact with users on any other instance in the fediverse. A user on one Mastodon instance, for example, may still view and interact with posts made by a user on a different Mastodon instance.[4]
Instances hosted by different social networking services may communicate with one another as well. A user on the microblogging platform Misskey, for example, may view and interact with posts made by users on Mastodon. Some fediverse networks even allow users to interact with multiple social networking formats from the same platform. For example, kbin allows users to interact with discussion forums (like those hosted on Lemmy instances) as well as microblog posts (as can be found on Mastodon).[5]
Software
There are many different software packages and services that allow users to participate in the fediverse. Some of them vaguely resemble Twitter in style (for example, Mastodon, Misskey, GNU social, and Pleroma, which are similar in their microblogging function), while others include more communication and transaction options that are instead comparable to Facebook (such as is the case with Friendica and Hubzilla). There are also third-party plugins for many CMSs such as WordPress and Drupal,[6][7] as well as bridges for other protocols such as RSS and Matrix.[8][9]
Software name | MAU[10] | Initial fediverse-compatible release | Type |
---|---|---|---|
Akkoma[11] | 4,164 | 2022[12] | Microblogging |
BookWyrm[13] | 4,834 | 2021[14] | Book cataloguing |
Castopod[15] | 2020[16] | Podcasting | |
Epicyon[17] | 2019[18] | Microblogging | |
Firefish (f. Calckey)[19] | 10,935 | 2022[20] | Microblogging |
Friendica (f. Friendika; orig. Mistpark) |
2,335 | 2010 | Blogging, image gallery, event planner, groups |
Funkwhale[21] | 600 | 2018[22] | Music hosting |
Gancio[23] | 2020[24] | Events, calendar | |
GNU social (f. StatusNet; orig. Laconica) |
137 | 2008 | Microblogging |
GoToSocial[25] | 42 | 2021[26] | Microblogging |
Guppe[27] | 2021[28] | Groups | |
Honk[29] | 2019[30] | Microblogging | |
Hubzilla (f. RedMatrix; orig. Friendica-Red)[31] |
933 | 2015[32] | CMS, blogging, wiki, image gallery, file hosting |
inventaire.io [33] | 2021 | Book cataloguing | |
Kbin[34] | 33,112 | Pre-release | Link aggregator, forum, microblogging |
Lemmy | 69,784 | 2019 | Link aggregator, forum |
Libervia | 2022 | Instant messaging, microblogging, blogging, file sharing, event management | |
lotide[35] | 2020[36] | Link aggregator | |
Mastodon | 1,745,621 | 2016 | Microblogging |
Micro.blog | 4,964 | 2017 | Microblogging, blogging, photoblogging, podcasting |
microblog.pub[37] | 2022[38] | Microblogging | |
Misskey | 15,541 | 2018 | Microblogging |
Mobilizon | 2020 | Event and group management | |
Nextcloud Social | 2018[39] | File hosting | |
Owncast[40] | 203 | 2022 | Live video streaming |
PeerTube | 18,646 | 2018 | Video sharing |
Pixelfed | 18,733 | 2018 | Image sharing |
Pleroma[41] | 18,094 | 2019[42] | Microblogging |
Plume[43] | 2018[44] | Blogging | |
Postmarks[45] | 2023[46] | Bookmarking | |
Socialhome | 42 | 2016[47] | Microblogging, blogging |
Streams[48] | 2022[49] | Blogging, wiki, image sharing | |
Takahē[50] | 5 | 2022[51] | Microblogging |
WriteFreely[52] | 2018[53] | Blogging | |
Zap[54] | Blogging, image gallery, file hosting |
See also

References
- Tilley, Sean (September 24, 2017). "A quick guide to The Free Network". We Distribute.
- "Remove OStatus-related code · Issue #10740 · mastodon/mastodon". GitHub.
- Bell, Karissa. "Meta's Threads app is here to challenge Twitter". Engadget. Yahoo. Archived from the original on July 6, 2023. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
- Woloshyn, Roxannna (July 19, 2023). "What is the fediverse and why does Threads want to join?". CBC.
- "Home | kbin.pub – Fediverse of content". /kbin. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
- Pfefferle, Matthias. "ActivityPub". WordPress.org.
- "ActivityPub". Drupal.org. February 23, 2019.
- Kazemi, Darius (July 16, 2023). "RSS to ActivityPub Converter". GitHub.
- "Kazarma". kazar.ma.
- "FediDB - Fediverse Network Statistics". fedidb.org.
- "akkoma.social". Archived from the original on April 5, 2023. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
- "Akkoma: A vision to refocus Pleroma". Coffee and Dreams. June 24, 2022.
- bookwyrm. "Bookwyrm". Archived from the original on May 26, 2021. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
- "BookWyrm (@bookwyrm@tech.lgbt)". LGBTQIA+ Tech Mastodon. May 6, 2021.
- "Castopod features". Archived from the original on May 6, 2022. Retrieved November 7, 2022.
- "Release v1.0.0-alpha.1: chore(release): 1.0.0-alpha.1 [skip ci] · ad-aures/castopod". GitHub.
- "Epicyon ActivityPub server". epicyon.net.
- "Epicyon 1.0 release | LibreServer Blog". blog.libreserver.org.
- "Firefish". Archived from the original on November 8, 2022. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
- "firefish". Codeberg.org.
- funkwhale. "Funkwhale". Archived from the original on May 2, 2019. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
- Collective, Funkwhale. "Funkwhale Blog ~ Funkwhale 0.17 is out!". blog.funkwhale.audio.
- "Home". Gancio.
- "v0.21.0 · les / gancio · GitLab". GitLab.
- "GoToSocial". GitHub. Archived from the original on January 1, 2023. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
- "Release v0.1.0 · superseriousbusiness/gotosocial". GitHub.
- immers-space. "Decentralized social groups for ActivityPub". GitHub. Archived from the original on November 22, 2022. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
- "Release First major release · immers-space/guppe". GitHub.
- "humungus - honk". humungus.tedunangst.com.
- "honk 0.1". flak.tedunangst.com.
- "Hubzilla - Frequently asked questions". hubzilla.org.
- "Hubzilla (1.0) release". October 21, 2016. Archived from the original on October 21, 2016.
- "Inventaire toot". mamot.fr. December 7, 2021. Archived from the original on August 28, 2022. Retrieved October 17, 2022.
- "kbin.pub - Fediverse of content". kbin.pub.
- "lotide". Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
- "Release v0.1.1 · lotide-org/lotide". GitHub.
- "microblog.pub: A self-hosted, single-user, ActivityPub powered microblog". sr.ht.
- "Release 2.0.0-rc.1 · tsileo/microblog.pub". GitHub.
- Poortvliet, Jos (December 10, 2018). "Nextcloud introduces social features, joins the fediverse". Nextcloud.
- "Owncast v0.0.11". March 5, 2022. Archived from the original on March 5, 2022. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
- "Pleroma's First Release! 0.9.9". pleroma.social.
- joinplu.me. "Plume". Archived from the original on May 10, 2019. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
- "Release 0.2.0 (Alpha 1) · Plume-org/Plume". GitHub.
- "postmarks". github.com. Archived from the original on September 15, 2023. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- "Postmarks". GitHub.
- "Release v0.1.1: Merge pull request #6 from jaywink/travisify · jaywink/socialhome". GitHub.
- "streams". codeberg.org. Archived from the original on July 9, 2023. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
- "Official release". Mike Macgirvin.
- "takahē". Archived from the original on December 27, 2022. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
- "Release 0.3.0 · jointakahe/takahe". GitHub.
- "WriteFreely". WriteFreely.
- "Hello, World". WriteFreely. November 10, 2018.
- "Zap". zotlabs.org.
Further reading
- 2022. Toxicity in the Decentralized Web and the Potential for Model Sharing
- 2021. Exploring Content Moderation in the Decentralised Web: The Pleroma Case
- 2019. The disinformation landscape and the lockdown of social platforms
- 2019. Challenges in the Decentralised Web: The Mastodon Case
- 2018. Recommending Users: Whom to Follow on Federated Social Networks
- 2018. Multi-task dialog act and sentiment recognition on Mastodon
- 2015. FCJ-190 Building a Better Twitter: A Study of the Twitter Alternatives GNU social, Quitter, rstat.us, and Twister
- 2015. The Case for Alternative Social Media
External links
- Fediverse Observer – map, statistics, software overview
- Fediverse Party – history, thematic groups, software overview
- FediDB – software overview and statistics
- The Federation - software overview and statistics