Starting today, Flipboard will let users search for and follow accounts from across the Fediverse from the comfort of their own dashboards. This is the next step in introducing Flipboard’s wider userbase to federation, and this iteration acts like a “soft follow” – users will be able to follow accounts from within Flipboard, but the functionality will be closer to following an RSS feed: they will be able to read and share posts, but won’t yet send follow requests or replies.

This new feature isn’t just limited to Mastodon or PixelFed, but includes Threads profiles that opted in to Fediverse Sharing, such as MKBHD, Molly Jong-Fast, and Nilay Patel. You won’t need to have a Threads account to cross this boundary, but will still be able to see what your favorite creators are up to. This is a neat way of letting people dip their toes into the wider network, without needing to fully commit to it on day one.

“It’s an exciting expansion of the types of content and conversations people can add to their Flipboard experience. And our users become an entirely new audience for creators and communities to connect with as well,” said Mike McCue, CEO and Co-Founder of Flipboard.

Search & Discovery

Tapping into the Fediverse presents a unique opportunity for discovery. The current offering most platforms have today are relatively sparse, but Flipboard will be able to yield results across Threads, Mastodon, Podcast Index, and other ActivityPub-based platforms. In trying to make discovery more robust, Flipboard is bringing visibility of popular accounts to help solve that problem, making it easier for people to find their favorite creators.

Flipboard also offers curated lists of users across the Fediverse, organized by categories like Politics. With official Threads accounts like @POTUS, @whitehouse, and @barackobama already federated, people on Flipboard can follow their content, alongside all of their other politics news. With Threads actively pushing back on discovery of political accounts, users may find a useful alternative in Flipboard once both have fully federated.

Flipboard’s Path to Federation

Flipboard has been taking small but important steps toward becoming a fully-federated platform for a while now. They started with their own Mastodon instance, and integrated with Mastodon once Twitter shut off their API access, effectively blocking Flipboard from Twitter’s API. The team then followed up with creating curator accounts on the Fediverse, integrating with PixelFed, and launching Dot Social, a podcast focused on the social web.

Their biggest hurdle to clear up to this point involved bringing publishers and creators to the Fediverse using their Flipboard accounts. This included We Distribute (wait, that’s us!), The Verge, Semafor, and a growing amount of local and national news publications, as beta testing progressed into further rounds.

While we wait for a fully-federated Flipboard, it’s exciting to see the company’s commitment to giving us features along the way. Being able to find and follow ActivityPub-based accounts as if they’re RSS feeds is a huge leap toward helping new users learn about the benefits of the open social web.