“How does fediverse sharing work on Threads?”

How does fediverse sharing work on Threads?

Updated October 17, 2026By the Threadgehog team

Short answer

Fediverse sharing sends your Threads profile and future posts to other servers, such as Mastodon, using the ActivityPub protocol. You need a public profile created with an Instagram account, be 18 or older, and be outside the European Region. Turn it on under Account in settings; turn it off any time (Threads Help Center, October 2026).

What it is

Meta's Help Center says Threads "is part of the fediverse," a global, open network of independent servers run by third parties. Threads talks to servers that support ActivityPub, the open protocol established by the World Wide Web Consortium, such as Mastodon and WordPress.

When you turn sharing on, people on other servers can search for your profile, follow it, view your posts, interact with them, and share them with anyone on or off their server. On Threads you can see who follows you and who likes your posts from other servers, and see and like replies from them.

Meta describes the fediverse like email. You can send a message from one email service to another because they use the same protocol. Fediverse servers work the same way, with one important difference Meta states: unlike email, your fediverse conversations and profile are public and can be shared across servers.

Once sharing is on, Fediverse Sharing appears at the top left of your profile, and tapping it shows your fediverse username.

How to turn it on

On threads.com from a computer: click More, then Settings, then Account at the top, then Fediverse sharing. Follow the prompts, review the information, and click Turn on sharing. The article gives the same route for the mobile app.

Once it is on, Fediverse Sharing appears at the top left of your profile, where you can see your fediverse username. Posts shared to other servers carry a Shared label.

The Help Center lists four conditions. You must have created your Threads profile with an Instagram account, be 18 or older, have a public profile, and be located outside the European Region. If you switch the profile from public to private, deactivate it or delete it, sharing is turned off for you.

Before you flip the switch, check your posting habits. If you rely on polls or limit who can reply, those posts will not be shared. If you want every post to reach other servers, leave polls and reply limits off. The app shows a notice at the top of the composer when a draft will not be shared, so you do not have to remember the list.

A short checklist before you turn it on: confirm your profile is public, confirm you are 18 or older and outside the European Region, then go to More, Settings, Account, Fediverse sharing and click Turn on sharing. After that, future posts are shared, including posts a scheduler publishes through Meta's API.

What gets shared, and what does not

Only future posts are shared. Posts from before you turned sharing on are not. Posts made through the Threads API are shared as well, so a post published by a scheduler counts, as long as it qualifies. Threads delays sharing by 15 minutes, to leave time for edits.

A post is not shared if it has a poll, if you limit who can reply and quote it, if it contains copyrighted audio that breaks Meta's audio licensing, or if it has an attachment that isn't supported. The app warns you while you draft. Other servers may also limit how many images and videos they show.

A few limits remain. You can't yet reply to fediverse replies from Threads, though you can like them, and a like is shared back. Your Threads follower count includes only people who follow you on Threads. Fediverse followers sit in a separate list.

A person on Mastodon finds your profile by searching for it, follows it, and then sees your posts. They can interact with them and share them with anyone on or off their server. You see their likes and can see and like their replies on Threads, but you cannot yet reply back to them from Threads.

Because their server has its own rules, a post can fail to reach some servers. Meta notes that posts "may not be shared to all servers" because of moderation policies and federation rules on either side.

Privacy and turning it off

Meta is direct about the trade-off. Information shared to other servers "is no longer in Meta's control," and those servers have their own policies. When you delete a post, turn sharing off or delete your profile, Threads asks other servers to remove your content. Meta says it cannot guarantee they do, and the content may stay public.

To turn it off on a computer: More, Settings, More settings, Fediverse sharing, Turn off sharing. You can turn it on again 30 days after you first turned it off. Turning it off does not delete your posts or profile on Threads.

Read the privacy article once before you turn sharing on. It lists what other servers can do: view posts you share when the format is supported, see if you have liked a reply from a user on another server, search for and follow your profile, reshare your posts, and interact with them by commenting or liking.

Should you turn it on?

The Help Center lays out what happens when sharing is on, and the choice depends on what you want from your posts.

Reasons people turn it on: you want your posts to be visible to people on Mastodon and other ActivityPub servers who never open Threads, you want to see replies and likes from those servers, and you are fine with a separate list of fediverse followers.

Reasons to wait: you want to keep your posts only on Threads, your profile is private (sharing requires public), you often use polls or reply limits that block sharing anyway, or you do not want content to sit on servers Meta does not control. Meta states that deletion on those servers is requested, not guaranteed.

You can try it and reverse it, though turning it on again requires waiting 30 days after you first turned it off.

Where Threadgehog fits

Threadgehog drafts Threads and X posts and hands approved posts to your scheduler. Fediverse sharing is a setting on your Threads profile, and it covers posts a scheduler publishes through Meta's API, as Meta states above. To plan drafts that qualify, skip polls and reply limits.

Fediverse sharing sends posts to ActivityPub servers. To reach X, publish an X version of the post: see cross-posting Threads and X. Join the waitlist on pricing.

Questions

Is fediverse sharing on by default?

No. You turn it on yourself in your account settings, and you can turn it off at any time.

Who can use Threads fediverse sharing?

Profiles created with an Instagram account, owners 18 or older, public profiles, outside the European Region, per the Help Center.

Does it share my old posts?

No. Only posts made after you turn it on are shared.

Are API-published posts shared?

Yes. Meta says posts made using the Threads API are shared too, when they qualify.

Can I delete my content from other servers?

Threads asks other servers to delete it, but Meta says it cannot guarantee that they will.

Why wasn't my post shared?

Polls, reply and quote limits, unsupported attachments and copyrighted audio all stop a post from being shared.

What is ActivityPub?

It is the open social networking protocol, established by the World Wide Web Consortium, that Threads uses to talk to other fediverse servers.

Which servers can see my posts?

Servers that support ActivityPub, such as Mastodon and WordPress, subject to moderation and federation rules on both sides.

Sources

Threads Help Center: Turn on sharing to the fediverse (checked 2026-10-17)
Threads Help Center: Turn off sharing to the fediverse (checked 2026-10-17)
Threads Help Center: About Threads and the fediverse (checked 2026-10-17)
Threads Help Center: How fediverse sharing affects your privacy (checked 2026-10-17)
Threads Help Center: Start a new thread (checked 2026-10-17)
Meta: Threads API, create posts overview (checked 2026-10-17)
Threadgehog: home and FAQ (checked 2026-10-17)