Mastodon, a decentralized, open-source social media platform and alternative to larger apps like X and Threads, announced plans to make its app more user-friendly for newcomers while also targeting creators with new features.
Following the expansion of Mastodon’s core development team over the past 18 months, which now includes experts in web, mobile, and back end, as well as the addition of a dedicated designer, a new blog post co-authored by Mastodon’s technical director, Renaud Chaput, and product designer, Imani Joy, outlines the app’s future direction.
The app, part of the fediverse — a larger, decentralized social web operating on the ActivityPub protocol — regained attention when Elon Musk acquired Twitter, now called X, in October 2022. It experienced growth spikes but has often struggled to retain new users due to its more complex setup. On Mastodon, users must choose a server to join in addition to creating an account, which can confuse those new to decentralization.
Mastodon has between 750,000 and 1 million monthly active users, depending on the source. One tracker estimates 750,000, while another suggests up to 1 million. Mastodon’s site reports about 785,000 users.
Upcoming updates aim to simplify the onboarding process and promote smaller servers. The blog post highlights that Mastodon thrives when communities are distributed across many independent servers, each with its own character and focus.
New admin tools will help server operators manage maintenance and moderation, including features to use external blocklists and set up content scanning for detecting illegal content and spam. There will also be tools to reduce media storage usage by serving remote media posts through a trusted third party.
Mastodon plans to attract more content creators with updates to its app, including redesigned user profiles and an improved compose experience. A new email notification option will allow someone to follow updates even without a Mastodon account, appealing to those who want to follow creators while enabling them to reach a larger audience.
Recent feature rollouts include Quote Posts with more user controls and plans for Collections, Mastodon’s take on Starter Pack-style user recommendations.
These updates follow leadership changes at Mastodon: founder Eugen Rochko stepped down as CEO after the platform announced its transition to a nonprofit structure. Felix Hlatky became executive director, and Mastodon announced it would divide his duties with Dr. Marius Rothermund, who will provide legal expertise during restructuring in the U.S., Germany, and Belgium.