Mastodon on Thursday announced a redesign of user profiles on its decentralized social networking platform, aiming to enhance usability for mainstream users.
The update seeks to address complexities associated with decentralized social networks, which some users find difficult compared to traditional platforms. The company hopes these changes will make the service more appealing to a broader audience, including organizations.
The revamped profiles will consolidate post views into a single “Activity” tab with a dropdown menu, allowing users to configure combinations of posts, replies, and boosts. Hashtags will now appear at the top of this tab, enabling filtering by tag.
Mastodon has removed the pinned posts carousel, replacing it with a single featured pinned post and a “View all pinned posts” button for additional content. A new informational pop-up will explain Mastodon’s two-part handle structure to new users.
Users will gain more control over profile appearance, with options to hide “Media” or “Featured” tabs and to hide replies from the “Media” tab. Custom profile fields will display side-by-side, increasing vertical screen space, and can now be modified on iOS and Android in addition to the web.
Other design adjustments include the removal of a “following you” badge and relocating the personal note feature to an overflow menu. Profile edits have been centralized within account settings, allowing users to manage featured hashtags and links from one location.
Link verification, a tool for establishing user credibility without central authority, has been moved from settings for easier access. Users can also crop and add alt text to profile and cover images.
These updates will first launch on the mastodon.social server and other servers running the nightly build. A wider rollout to additional servers is expected with the Mastodon 4.6 software update in the coming weeks.
Mastodon is built on the ActivityPub protocol. The platform saw increased attention after Elon Musk acquired Twitter, now X, prompting some users to seek alternatives. Mastodon has approximately 800,000 monthly active users, a decline from a peak of one million following the Twitter acquisition.
