ActivityPub has released a major update for its ActivityPub plugin, which allows WordPress blogs to interact with the fediverse, a network of decentralized social platforms that use the ActivityPub protocol.
The ActivityPub plugin, which was first launched in 2019, creates ActivityPub profiles for WordPress blogs or authors, which can be followed by fediverse users on platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, Friendica, Hubzilla, Pixelfed, SocialHome, Misskey, and others.
When a WordPress post is published or updated, the plugin sends an activity to the followers, who can see it on their timelines. When a fediverse user replies to an activity, the plugin receives it and publishes it as a comment on the WordPress site. This way, the plugin enables cross-platform communication and engagement between WordPress blogs and the fediverse.
ActivityPub 1.0.0 Update and news features
The new version of the plugin, ActivityPub 1.0.0, introduces several features and improvements that make it easier and more secure for WordPress users to join the fediverse. Some of the highlights are:
- Blog-wide accounts: Users can now enable a blog-wide profile that represents the whole blog, instead of individual author profiles. This means that fediverse users can follow a WordPress blog and receive updates from all its authors, not just one. The blog profile can also customize the activity object type and the post content and image settings.
- New blocks: Users can now add two new blocks to their WordPress sites: a “Follow” block that displays a button for fediverse users to follow the blog or author, and a “Followers” block that shows the number and avatars of the fediverse followers.
- Follower system rewrite: The plugin now uses custom post types to store and manage the fediverse followers, instead of user meta data. This improves performance and compatibility with other plugins.
- Signature verification: The plugin now supports [HTTP signatures], a security mechanism that verifies the identity and authenticity of the fediverse actors.
- Hashtags support: The plugin now has an experimental feature that adds hashtags in the WordPress content as native tags and replaces them with tag links. This makes it easier to discover and categorize posts on the fediverse.
The ActivityPub plugin is available for free on the [WordPress plugin directory] and is compatible with WordPress 6.3 or higher. The plugin is developed by [Pfefferle], a German web developer- Matthias Pfefferle & Automattic
