ActivityPub for WordPress

Tag: Move

  • What we shipped so far in 2025

    A Wapuu holding a Fediverse-Ball while sitting on a spaceship.

    Alongside our upcoming plans, we’ve already shipped several important features in recent releases. Here are some highlights of what’s now available in the ActivityPub plugin.

    Onboarding

    We’ve added an onboarding flow after plugin activation to help guide new users through key decisions — such as selecting the Actor Mode.

    A screenshot of the onboarding launchpad.

    It’s also a great opportunity to explain Fediverse concepts for users who are new to them.

    More details:

    👉 5.9.0 — Easier onboarding for your Fediverse experience

    Move

    The Move Activity is used by Mastodon to migrate accounts to different servers — and can also be used for domain or username changes.

    In the WordPress ecosystem, one of the main motivations for implementing Move was to support changing the domain of a WordPress blog — a common scenario for WordPress site owners.

    We’ve built a solid foundation in the plugin to both send and receive Move Activities. However, because Move is not yet widely adopted across the Fediverse, we’ve decided to pause further work on this feature until there is broader ecosystem support.

    Account migration remains a crucial capability for a healthier, more portable social web. If you’re interested in the broader context and challenges around this, we recommend watching Cory Doctorow’s keynote from the June FediForum:

    We’ll revisit this as the standard matures and more servers implement consistent handling of Move.

    More details:

    👉 GitHub — Move Milestone

    Outbox

    Earlier versions of the plugin supported only the federation of custom post types, sending all messages in one bulk.

    That approach works up to about 1000 followers, but does not support retries, logging, or error handling.

    To support larger blogs or news sites — we needed a more robust system.

    We now have mechanisms to:

    • Federate activities to more than 1000 followers.
    • Use a staggered delivery system that prioritizes servers.
    • Provide a stable and scalable architecture.
    • Support retries and error reporting.

    This improved Outbox system also makes it easier for third-party plugin developers to federate their own content types in a reliable and scalable way.

    More details:

    👉 GitHub — Outbox Milestone

    Changelogs

    These are just the major milestones. If you’re interested in everything we ship, be sure to subscribe or follow the blog — we publish detailed changelog posts with every new plugin release, listing all new features and improvements.

    ActivityPub for WordPress
    ActivityPub for WordPress
    @activitypub.blog@activitypub.blog

    News about the ActivityPub plugin for WordPress.

    21 posts
    494 followers

    As always, we welcome your feedback and ideas — they help shape the future of the ActivityPub plugin and the growing WordPress Fediverse community! 🚀

  • From Toot to Post: Mastodon Migration Made Easy

    If you’ve been posting on Mastodon and want to bring those posts into your WordPress site, the new importer makes that possible. It’s a beta feature, but it already handles the basics well—and helps you keep more of your content in one place.

    Keep What You Create

    Social platforms can come and go—or just change in ways you didn’t expect. Maybe your Mastodon server shuts down, or the people running it move on. When that happens, it’s easy to lose your old posts and the history you’ve built up.

    The Mastodon importer helps you take control by bringing your posts into your WordPress site, where you own the content and can decide how it’s stored, shared, and presented. You’re not just copying things over—you’re giving your content a more permanent home.

    Getting Started

    The import process is user-friendly and follows a clear workflow:

    1. Log into your Mastodon account and go to Preferences > Import and Export.
    2. Request your archive and download the ZIP file when it’s ready.
    3. Open the WordPress Mastodon Importer and upload your file.
    4. Choose an author for your imported posts and decide whether to include media files or just the text.

    Once uploaded, you can assign imported posts to a specific author and choose whether to include image attachments with your posts or just import the text content.

    The importer processes your posts from the Mastodon outbox.json file, filtering to include only public posts while skipping boosts. Each post maintains its original publication date, content, and media. If your posts include images, video, or audio, the importer brings those in too and adds them to the post automatically.

    Screenshot of a Mastodon post showcasing redesigned WordPress email notifications, including examples of new follower and mention emails.
    Screenshot of a WordPress blog post about ActivityPub integration showing redesigned email notification templates on a green background.

    Your Posts, Rebuilt

    The importer transforms your Mastodon content into a rich block editor experience. Your posts convert into proper paragraph blocks while maintaining their original formatting. Images are organized into gallery blocks with captions intact, while videos and audio files transform into their respective media blocks for optimal playback.

    Hashtags from your Mastodon posts are converted to WordPress tags, preserving your content’s organizational structure and discoverability.

    When a post is part of a conversation, the importer adds a reply block at the beginning of your post that embeds the original post you were responding to. This keeps the conversation flow clear and provides context for your response.

    All these blocks remain fully editable after import, so you can tweak layouts or adjust media presentation as needed.

    For classic editor users, the importer keeps things simple with standard shortcodes for media. It’s not as fancy as the block version, but it should work reliably with your existing setup.

    It’s a Beta—Your Feedback Counts

    The Mastodon importer is still in beta, and there’s more work ahead—especially when it comes to large archives and better handling of replies. We’ve followed WordPress importer best practices, but real-world use is where things really get tested.

    Tried the importer? Let us know how it went—what worked, what didn’t, and what you’d love to see next. Your feedback helps shape where we take it from here.