Latest news with #Mastodon
Axios
3 days ago
- Business
- Axios
Exclusive: Meta names Connor Hayes head of Threads
Longtime Meta executive Connor Hayes has been named head of Threads, Axios has learned, marking a significant milestone for the two-year old product. Why it matters: Instagram head Adam Mosseri has overseen Threads since its inception, but as the app has grown, so too has its need for a leader solely focused on its future. " Given Threads' maturity, we think we need a dedicated app lead who can focus all of their time on helping Threads move forward," Mosseri wrote in a Thursday staff memo obtained by Axios. Zoom in: Mosseri said Hayes will begin his new role by mid-September and will report to him directly. Once onboarded, all product managers, engineers, designers, data scientists and user experience researchers working on Threads will report in through Hayes, he added. Threads data engineers will continue reporting through Brad Ruderman, Meta's senior director of data engineering. Catch up quick: Hayes was part of the original team that built the first version of Threads when it launched in 2023. He later served as Meta's vice president of product for generative AI. Hayes first joined Facebook in 2011 and has served in various product roles across Meta and Instagram over the past 14 years. Zoom out: The move comes as Threads continues to grow rapidly around the world. While X is still the dominant real-time, social discourse platform in terms of global daily web visits, Threads is on the cusp of catching up in terms of mobile app users, according to Similarweb data. Between the lines: Meta launched Threads in 2023 as an offshoot of Instagram. Having access to Instagram's user base of more than 1 billion people helped Threads grow quickly, especially compared to other real-time, social discourse apps like Mastodon and Bluesky. In his staff note, Mosseri said Threads now has more than 350 million monthly users. Between the lines: When Threads first launched, the product was closely linked to Instagram. Today, it's "grown into a platform with its own culture, its own energy, and a rapidly growing community," Mosseri said. To that point, he added that more than a third of daily Threads users with connections follow different accounts on Threads than on Instagram. "It's exciting to see Threads establishing its own unique user base," he noted. What to watch: Meta continues to roll out new Threads features that make the app more akin to X, formerly Twitter, which launched in 2006.
Engadget
3 days ago
- Business
- Engadget
Jack Dorsey backs an open-source development collective with $10 million
Jack Dorsey has been back in the news lately after unveiling a pair of new apps he worked on, Bluetooth-based messenager Bitchat and UV exposure tracker Sun Day . The Block CEO put those together under the auspices of a new development collective called "and Other Stuff," a nonprofit that he is backing with a $10 million cash injection through his StartSmall foundation , as TechCrunch reports. The group plans to work on open-source projects, including ones that could become consumer social media apps, along with app-development tools. The developers met on Nostr, a social networking protocol Dorsey has also backed financially. The "and Other Stuff" collective aims to support Nostr's "transition from an experimental protocol to a widely adopted, sustainable ecosystem through collaborative growth and funding." In addition to Nostr projects, the collaborators plan to experiment with building tools based on the likes of ActivityPub — which powers Mastodon — and Cashu. That e-cash platform's creator, dubbed Calle, is part of the "and other Stuff" team alongside Twitter's first employee, Evan Henshaw-Plath. The projects that "and Other Stuff" has worked on so far include voice note app heynow, a private messenger app called White Noise and social community +chorus. They have also created Shakespeare, which is designed to help developers build Nostr-based social apps with AI. Dorsey has long fostered an interest in open-source protocols. In 2019, during his second stint as Twitter CEO, the company set up a team that was tasked with forming an open, decentralized standard for social media. Dorsey had hoped to eventually shift Twitter onto that protocol, but of course that didn't pan out. Instead, Twitter spun out that project — Bluesky — as a public benefit corporation in 2022. Last year, after leaving Bluesky's board, Dorsey claimed that the team there was "literally repeating all the mistakes" he made while running Twitter such as, uh, setting up moderation tools (which are, in reality, a critically important aspect of any successful social platform). On an episode of Henshaw-Plath's new podcast , Dorsey reiterated a point he had made previously, that Twitter was beholden to advertisers (an issue that X is contending with under Elon Musk's ownership ). "It's hard for something like [Twitter] to be a company, because you have corporate incentives when it wants to be a protocol," Dorsey said. "If [Twitter] were an open protocol, if it were truly an open project, you could build a business on top of it, and you could build a very healthy business on top of it." He was also once again critical of Bluesky's structure, adding that, "I want to push the energy in a different direction... which is more like Bitcoin, which is completely open and not owned by anyone from a protocol layer. That's what I see in Nostr as well. That's where I want to push my energy... rather into the more corporate direction, even if it is a public benefit corporation."
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mastodon's latest update readies the app for Quote Posts, revamps design
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 is taking the first steps towards implementing a change that will bring it on par with other networks, but may also impact user behavior: it's preparing to integrate 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 deride another person by quoting a post and responding with 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 letting users control whether their content can be quoted, and even let users withdraw their posts from the quoted context at any time. Plus, users will get notifications when someone quotes their posts. But Quote Posts aren't being fully rolled out with Mastodon 4.4. Instead, the organization is releasing the code that supports displaying Quote Posts, which will allow users to see quotes from compatible Fediverse platforms, including future Mastodon releases. Users won't actually be able to quote posts until Mastodon version 4.5 releases later this year. The 4.4 version brings more changes designed to improve other areas, including profiles, navigation, lists, media controls and admin features. A new 'Feature on my profile' option will let you showcase what you want to promote, like all your posts with a specific hashtag, or other accounts — think profiles you find interesting, or accounts you run for your business, brand or side project. Mastodon will now also display your Pinned Posts at the top of your profile in a carousel. Because the app lets users pin up to five posts, previously you had to scroll a lot if you just wanted to see more recent content on someone's profile. There's a new profile widget, too, that shows how many of the people you follow are following the person whose profile you're viewing. It's also now easier to add and remove users to Lists both directly from profiles and from your own Following and Followers listings Version 4.4 also updates Mastodon's media player with a new design: the play and pause buttons are more centrally located and easier to click, and we get hotkeys for seeking, volume control, and going fullscreen. On mobile, you can double-tap or pinch photos to zoom in and out, and to close a zoomed-in 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 apps. Meanwhile, the mobile website now more closely mimics the native mobile apps, with action buttons in a bottom toolbar and more consistent navigation 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 curated content (like Lists, Bookmarks, and Favorites), and a third for other elements. For new users, onboarding has been shrunk to a two-step process from the previous four-step process, in the hopes of addressing concerns that it's too complicated to get started on Mastodon. Server admins have access to new legal compliance features, like managing Terms of Service, offering translations of server rules in different languages, and an option to set a minimum age requirement for newusers. The changes follow a number of other updates for the social network this year, including a decision to 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. Sign in to access your portfolio
The Verge
08-07-2025
- The Verge
Mastodon is improving profiles and getting ready for quote posts
Mastodon 4.4 is out now, and it brings a bunch of changes for things like profiles and lists and also lays the groundwork for quote posts. With profiles, you can now feature specific hashtags so that people can see all the posts you've tagged with those hashtags, the Mastodon says. Mastodon is also making a change to how pinned posts work: you can still pin up to five posts onto your profile, but they'll now show up as a single carousel so you don't have to scroll down as far to see new posts. When you're looking at a profile, Mastodon can now tell you how many people you follow also follow that person. For lists, Mastodon says that creating and managing them has been 'significantly streamlined' and that 'it's easier than ever to add and remove accounts from your lists both directly from profiles and from your own follows and followers listings.' And with quote posts, which Mastodon already said were in the works, the platform is doing what it calls 'part one' of implementation. 'Since Mastodon runs on over 8,000 independent servers that together form the platform you know, releasing features like this requires a two-pronged approach: first we release code that supports processing and displaying this new format, and then release code that allows our users to actively use the feature,' Mastodon says. With 4.4, 'you will be able to see quotes from compatible Fediverse platforms (including future Mastodon releases),' but you won't actually be able to quote posts until Mastodon's 4.5 release. Other new features include a reminder to add alt text to images and video that you post, updating Mastodon's mobile web UI to make it 'mimic native apps,' and streamlining onboarding.
TechCrunch
08-07-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Mastodon's latest update readies the app for Quote Posts, revamps design
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. Techcrunch event Save up to $475 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $450 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW 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. Image Credits:Mastodon 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. Image Credits:Mastodon 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.
