wordpress

<p>In this version of ActivityPub for WordPress, most blocks received a pretty fundamental overhaul of their technical infrastructure, design, and functionality.</p><p>The biggest change is almost invisible—all blocks now use <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/interactivity-api/" rel="nofollow">WordPress’ Interactivity API</a> under the hood, shedding a substantial amount of load-heavy scripts. On well-optimized sites, this should lead to noticeably quicker load times and improved web vitals.</p><p>Let’s dive in and look at each block individually.</p><p>Follow Me Block</p><p>After updating, you might glance at your existing Follow Me blocks and think… “Did anything change?” That’s the goal! We’ve worked hard to keep things fully backwards compatible, so nothing should break—or even look too different—unless you want it to.</p><p>The “Follow” button was updated to use WordPress’ built-in Button block, so all those customization options you already know and love are right there. We also turned “Button Only” into a proper Block Style. You’ll see it right next to the default, complete with a hover preview, making it easy to switch between.</p><p>And speaking of style: there’s a new Profile style! This transforms the block into something that looks like an author card, complete with a description, header image, and post/follower stats. More social, more visual, still fully customizable. Not into the rounded corners and shadows? No problem—you can tweak those in the Styles tab.</p><p>But that’s not all! The Modal containing the follow information also received a slight makeover, making it more theme-agnostic in its appearance.</p><p>Followers Block</p><p>For this block we didn’t hold back on updating the design—subtler styling and better theme integration, so it looks at home wherever you drop it. Like we did with the Reactions block in version 5.9.0, we’ve updated the title to use WordPress’ native Heading block. That gives you more control over appearance, while keeping things compatible with existing content.</p><p>This block now benefits from the same Interactivity API improvements and renders server-side on first load, making it feel noticeably faster and more responsive right from the start.</p><p>We also introduced a new Card style here (you might’ve spotted it in <a href="https://activitypub.blog/2025/06/06/6-0-0-new-kids-on-the-block/" rel="nofollow">the 6.0.0 announcement</a>). It pairs nicely with the Follow Me block’s Profile style—rounded corners and a coordinated look that helps everything feel part of the same family.</p><p>They’ll be more changes to come soon, as we unlock font and background customizations to bring the block up to par with the rest of them.</p><p>Reactions Block</p><p>The Reactions block is a bit of a behind-the-scenes hero. Thanks to block hooks, it can automatically appear at the end of posts—no editor work required. But if you want to place it manually (like we’re doing here), you totally can.</p><p>Beyond receiving the same technical upgrades as the other blocks, this one now displays the actual reactions in the Editor, matching what you see on the frontend—no more stand-in data unless there are no reactions yet. It also includes a few subtle improvements, like rendering an HTML comment when there’s nothing to show (so you’re not left guessing), and displaying more avatars when the block is set to “wide” or “full”-width, making better use of the space.</p><p>Remote Reply</p><p>This one’s a bit niche, but clever: Remote Reply lets logged-out users respond to Fediverse comments directly from your site. It’s not a block you can add in the editor, but it now uses the same lightweight tech as the Follow Me button—so it loads faster and feels smoother.</p><p>If you’ve never seen it in action, you’re not alone—it only appears when certain conditions are met (logged out, looking at a Fediverse-sourced comment, etc.). Here’s a quick demo:</p> <p>While most of what ActivityPub does happens quietly behind the scenes, this update puts a little more shine on the parts your visitors can see. The blocks are lighter, more flexible, and a bit more fun to work with.</p><p>As always, we’d love to hear what you think! Every improvement in this release was shaped by feedback from users like you—so keep it coming.</p> <small class="notice" x-post-type-data="type=&#x27;Article&#x27; attributed_to=None"> Takahe has limited support for this type: <a href="https://activitypub.blog/2025/06/18/new-look-faster-blocks-in-activitypub-6-0-0/">See Original Article</a> </small>

<p><a href="https://activitypub.blog/2025/06/11/our-2025-roadmap-building-the-future-of-wordpress-federation/" rel="nofollow">Alongside our upcoming plans</a>, we’ve already shipped several important features in recent releases. Here are some highlights of what’s now available in the ActivityPub plugin.</p><p>Onboarding</p><p>We’ve added an onboarding flow after plugin activation to help guide new users through key decisions — such as selecting the Actor Mode.</p><p>It’s also a great opportunity to explain Fediverse concepts for users who are new to them.</p><p>More details:</p><p>👉 <a href="https://activitypub.blog/2025/05/14/5-9-0-easier-onboarding-for-your-fediverse-experience/" rel="nofollow">5.9.0 — Easier onboarding for your Fediverse experience</a></p><p>Move</p><p>The Move Activity is used by Mastodon to migrate accounts to different servers — and can also be used for domain or username changes.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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 <a href="https://fediforum.org/2025-06/" rel="nofollow">Cory Doctorow’s keynote from the June FediForum</a>:</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_Gs1t0qe78" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_Gs1t0qe78"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_Gs1t</span><span class="invisible">0qe78</span></a></p><p>We’ll revisit this as the standard matures and more servers implement consistent handling of Move.</p><p>More details:</p><p>👉 <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-activitypub/milestone/5" rel="nofollow">GitHub — Move Milestone</a></p><p>Outbox</p><p>Earlier versions of the plugin supported only the federation of custom post types, sending all messages in one bulk.</p><p>That approach works up to about 1000 followers, but does not support retries, logging, or error handling.</p><p>To support larger blogs or news sites — we needed a more robust system.</p><p>We now have mechanisms to:</p><p>Federate activities to more than 1000 followers.<br>Use a staggered delivery system that prioritizes servers.<br>Provide a stable and scalable architecture.<br>Support retries and error reporting.</p><p>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.</p><p>More details:</p><p>👉 <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-activitypub/milestone/4" rel="nofollow">GitHub — Outbox Milestone</a></p><p>Changelogs</p><p>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 <a href="https://activitypub.blog/category/changelog/" rel="nofollow">changelog posts</a> with every new plugin release, listing all new features and improvements.</p><p>As always, we welcome your feedback and ideas — they help shape the future of the ActivityPub plugin and the growing WordPress Fediverse community! 🚀</p> <small class="notice" x-post-type-data="type=&#x27;Article&#x27; attributed_to=None"> Takahe has limited support for this type: <a href="https://activitypub.blog/2025/06/24/what-we-shipped-so-far-in-2025/">See Original Article</a> </small>

<p>Ever wonder how your site proves it’s really you talking to the rest of the Fediverse? It’s not magic—it’s HTTP signatures, the digital equivalent of a secret handshake. With our next release, we’re making that handshake a lot more universal (and a little less awkward).</p><p>Why HTTP Signatures Matter</p><p>When you interact with the Fediverse, you want to know that the messages you send and receive are genuine. <a href="https://swicg.github.io/activitypub-http-signature/" rel="nofollow">HTTP signatures</a> are the technology that makes this possible. Every time your site sends a message, it includes a digital signature—like sealing an envelope with your personal stamp. This signature proves that your content really came from your account and that no one has tampered with it along the way. As a result, you can trust that your interactions across the network are authentic.</p><p>A Bit of Background: draft-cavage and RFC 9421</p><p>If you’ve heard about HTTP signatures, you might have come across terms like “draft-cavage” and “RFC 9421.” These are just different versions of the rules for how those digital signatures are created and checked.</p><p>For a long time, most of the Fediverse has used what’s called <a href="https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-cavage-http-signatures-12" rel="nofollow">the draft-cavage-12 specification</a>. Think of this as a set of instructions that people agreed to try out, but that hadn’t been officially finalized. It worked well enough to let sites talk to each other securely, but because it was just a draft, there were sometimes small differences in how different software used it.</p><p>Recently, the community agreed on a final, official version of these rules, called <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9421.html" rel="nofollow">RFC 9421</a>. This is now the standard way to create and verify HTTP signatures. This makes it easier for sites and servers to understand each other and work together, since everyone is following the same process.</p><p>Incoming Support for the New Standard, Out of the Box</p><p>With this update, the plugin will support incoming HTTP signatures that use the new standard right away. There’s nothing extra you need to do. This means that when other servers use the new, official approach for signatures, your site will recognize and accept them. By making support for the new standard easy and automatic, the plugin helps move the Fediverse forward, encouraging more sites to adopt this approach and making connections across the network more reliable.</p><p>Outgoing Requests and the Double Knock Approach</p><p>There’s a new setting for outgoing requests, but for most people, there’s no need to touch it. This option is really for the folks who like to be on the cutting edge and want to start using the new standard for outgoing messages right away. If that sounds like you, here’s how to find it: head to the ActivityPub settings in your dashboard, open “Screen Options” at the top right, and enable “Advanced Settings.” Then, click on the Advanced Settings tab and turn on “Use modern signature format for Fediverse communications.”</p><p>But don’t feel any pressure—leaving this setting off is perfectly fine. The plugin already handles incoming messages with the new standard out of the box, and we’ll automatically enable outgoing support for everyone once the wider Fediverse is ready. For now, this is just an option for early adopters.</p><p>If you do turn it on, the plugin uses what we call the “double knock” approach. It’ll try the new standard first, and if the other server isn’t ready for it, it’ll automatically fall back to the older method. So, you can experiment without worrying about breaking communication with anyone.</p><p>Improved Verification for Existing Signatures</p><p>The plugin also brings improvements to how it handles signatures that use the older method, especially those using the hs2019 algorithm. Now, when a signed message arrives, the plugin fetches the sender’s public key and uses it to determine the correct way to verify the signature, following the specification more closely. This means more reliable verification and fewer errors, making your experience smoother and more predictable.</p><p>Looking Forward</p><p>With this update, the plugin helps move the Fediverse toward a shared standard for signing and verifying messages. By supporting both the new standard and the older method, you’re making it easier for everyone to communicate using the same agreed-upon approach. There’s no change in security, but you’re part of making the network more consistent and helping the community take the next step forward.</p><p>We hope this explanation helps clarify these technical changes. If you have any questions about HTTP signatures or how our plugin interacts with the Fediverse, please don’t hesitate to reach out in the comments below.</p> <small class="notice" x-post-type-data="type=&#x27;Article&#x27; attributed_to=None"> Takahe has limited support for this type: <a href="https://activitypub.blog/2025/07/03/http-signature-upgrades-coming-soon/">See Original Article</a> </small>

<p>Fediverse life just got a little easier! This release is all about giving you more confidence in how you manage your users — and making your follower, following, and block lists feel lightning fast. Let’s dive in.</p><p>Clean Breaks, Done Right</p><p>Until now, removing someone’s ActivityPub capability in WordPress only affected their local account. Their presence in the Fediverse lingered on. With this release, you’re in charge of what happens next.</p><p>When you remove ActivityPub capabilities from users on your site, you’ll now see a confirmation step:</p><p>With this change, you can decide whether you’re simply adjusting roles inside WordPress, or making a complete exit across the network.</p><p>We’ve also expanded delete handling to cover more scenarios:</p><p>Comment removal: Permanently deleted federated comments now send a Delete activity across the Fediverse.<br>Virtual deletes &amp; restores: You can now remove objects from the Fediverse without deleting them locally — and bring them back if needed.<br>WP-CLI command for Actors: A new command makes it easier to manage and clean up Actors directly from the command line.</p><p>Together, these tools make sure your Fediverse presence stays consistent with the choices you make in WordPress.</p><p>Lists That Load in a Snap</p><p>Managing your Fediverse connections shouldn’t feel slow — and now it doesn’t. The follower, following, and block lists are noticeably faster and more reliable in this release.</p><p>Behind the scenes, we cleaned up and centralized how account information is resolved. Instead of each list handling things in its own way, they now all share a single, streamlined method with built-in caching. That means less duplication, less waiting, and a smoother experience every time you browse your lists — even on larger sites.</p><p>Full Changelog</p><p>Added</p><p>Add activitypub_json REST field for ap_actor posts to access raw JSON data.<br>Add Delete activity support for permanently deleted federated comments.<br>Added a new WP-CLI command to manage Actors.<br>Added confirmation step for bulk removal of ActivityPub capability, asking whether to also delete users from the Fediverse.<br>Adds support for virtual deletes and restores, allowing objects to be removed from the fediverse without being deleted locally.<br>Add Yoast SEO integration for media pages site health check.<br>Optimized WebFinger lookups by centralizing and caching account resolution for faster, more consistent handling across lists.</p><p>Changed</p><p>Clarified the ‘attachment’ post type description to explain it refers to media library uploads and recommend disabling federation in most cases.<br>Hide site-wide checkbox in block confirmations when accessed from ActivityPub settings page.<br>Improved ActivityPub compatibility by aligning with Mastodon’s Application Actor.<br>It’s now possible to reply to multiple posts using multiple reply blocks.<br>Refactored Reply block to use WordPress core embed functionality for better compatibility and performance.<br>Use wp_interactivity_config() for static values instead of wp_interactivity_state() to improve performance and code clarity.</p><p>Deprecated</p><p>ActivityPub now defaults to automated object type selection, with the old manual option moved to Advanced settings for compatibility.</p><p>Fixed</p><p>Fix content visibility override issue preventing authors from changing visibility on older posts.<br>Fix PHP warning when saving ActivityPub settings.<br>Fix query args preservation in collection pagination links.<br>Fix release script to catch more ‘unreleased’ deprecation patterns that were previously missed during version updates.<br>Fix reply block rendering inconsistency where blocks were always converted to @-mentions in ActivityPub content. Now only first reply blocks become @-mentions, others remain as regular links.<br>Stop sending follow notifications to the Application user, since system-level accounts cannot be followed.</p><p>Downloads</p><p>WordPress.org: <a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/activitypub.7.4.0.zip" rel="nofollow">activitypub.7.4.0.zip</a><br>GitHub: <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-activitypub/releases/tag/7.4.0" rel="nofollow">tag/7.4.0</a></p><p>Thanks</p><p>High-fives to everyone who helped chart the course, whether you coded, tested, spotted bugs, or just cheered from the sidelines. You keep this ship flying! 🚀</p><p>Version 7.4.0 has just landed—jump in and tell us how it feels out there in the Fediverse.</p> <small class="notice" x-post-type-data="type=&#x27;Article&#x27; attributed_to=None"> Takahe has limited support for this type: <a href="https://activitypub.blog/2025/09/15/7-4-0-more-control-less-waiting/">See Original Article</a> </small>

<p>We’ve rolled out an update that makes sharing content to the fediverse via ActivityPub even better—especially when it comes to images in comments. Now, when you include an HTML &lt;img&gt; tag that points to a file in your WordPress media library, that image is bundled as a proper attachment in the ActivityStreams payload. This means your followers on other platforms will see both your comment and its image, making conversations more vivid and engaging.</p><p>To protect your privacy and security, only images hosted in your own WordPress media library are supported. Images from external sources are intentionally skipped.</p><p>Smoother Following, Better Interactions</p><p>If you’ve turned on the “Following User Interface” feature in the advanced settings, you’ll see a few nice improvements. The followers list now shows whether you’re already following someone—and if not, you can follow them back with just one click.</p><p>We’ve also made it easier to follow people from other sites. When you click “Follow” on someone else’s blog, you’ll now be taken to your own site to complete it. It keeps things simple and familiar, even when you start following someone from another site.</p><p>Better Support for Multibyte Text</p><p>Finally, we’ve improved how multibyte characters (like those in Greek and other non-Latin scripts) are handled when generating post summaries for the fediverse. We’ve replaced byte-based string functions with multibyte-safe alternatives and reordered text processing steps to avoid errors.</p><p>Full Changelog</p><p>Added</p><p>Add image attachment support to federated comments – HTML images in comment content now include proper ActivityStreams attachment fields.<br>Link to the following internal dialog for remote interactions, if the feature is enabled.<br>The followers list now shows follow status and allows quick follow-back actions.<br>Trigger Actor updates on (un)setting a post as sticky.<br>You can now use OrderedCollections as starter packs — just drop in the output from a Follower or Following endpoint.</p><p>Changed</p><p>Ensure that tests run in production-like conditions, avoiding interference from local development tools.<br>Moved HTTP request signing to a filter instead of calling it directly.</p><p>Fixed</p><p>Allow non-administrator users to use Follow Me and Followers blocks.<br>Correct linking from followers to the following list.<br>Fix avatar rendering for followers with missing icon property.<br>Fix multibyte character corruption in post summaries, preventing Greek and other non-ASCII text from being garbled during text processing.<br>Informational Fediverse blocks are no longer rendered when posts get added to the Outbox.</p><p>Downloads</p><p>WordPress.org: <a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/activitypub.7.2.0.zip" rel="nofollow">activitypub.7.2.0.zip</a><br>GitHub: <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-activitypub/releases/tag/7.2.0" rel="nofollow">tag/7.2.0</a></p><p>Thank you!</p><p>Huge thanks to everyone who shared code, gave feedback, tested, or simply cheered us on! Together, we’re building a more connected fediverse, one release at a time. ❤️</p><p>We’ve just released version 7.2.0, give it a spin and let us know what you think!</p> <small class="notice" x-post-type-data="type=&#x27;Article&#x27; attributed_to=None"> Takahe has limited support for this type: <a href="https://activitypub.blog/2025/07/30/7-2-0-follow-ups/">See Original Article</a> </small>

CMS users who don&#x27;t like the turn towards #<a href="https://hubzilla.org/search?tag=LLM" rel="nofollow">LLM</a> (or #<a href="https://hubzilla.org/search?tag=AI" rel="nofollow">AI</a> ) – such as the one made by the #<a href="https://hubzilla.org/search?tag=wordpress" rel="nofollow">wordpress</a> core development – are invited to try <a href="" rel="nofollow">Hubzilla</a> as a #<a href="https://hubzilla.org/search?tag=CMS" rel="nofollow">CMS</a> software, which offers (beyond CMS functionalities) privacy &amp; access control based connectivity (in the #<a href="https://hubzilla.org/search?tag=Fediverse" rel="nofollow">Fediverse</a> and beyond) between the CMS sites.<br><br>Here&#x27;s what <a href="" rel="nofollow">Make WordPress Core</a> says: <br><p>AI is an industry shift, quickly becoming a cornerstone of the next generation of technology. For WordPress to grow into the next phase it’s critical that AI become a fundamental part of WordPress itself, and for this to succeed everyone has a role to fulfill.</p><br><br>#<a href="https://hubzilla.org/search?tag=Hubzilla" rel="nofollow">Hubzilla</a> #<a href="https://hubzilla.org/search?tag=noAI" rel="nofollow">noAI</a>

<p>As the year winds down, we’ve wrapped up a release that brings better moderation tools, a new way to display reactions, and a small surprise, just in time for the holidays.</p><p>Stronger Tools for Moderation</p><p>Moderation can be hard work, especially on the Fediverse, where conversations flow in from all directions. This release introduces new tools that help you stay in control with less manual effort.</p><p>You can now subscribe to shared blocklists and let the plugin keep them up to date automatically. Subscribed lists are synced on a weekly cadence, so changes made upstream are reflected on your site without you having to lift a finger.</p><p>On top of that, we’ve added a bulk domain blocklist importer. You can upload a CSV or plain text file, including Mastodon-style exports, and quickly add large numbers of domains at once. To make it even easier to get started, the importer includes a one-click option for the popular community-maintained <a href="https://about.iftas.org/library/iftas-dni-list/" rel="nofollow">IFTAS DNI list</a> (<span class="h-card"><a href="https://about.iftas.org" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>about.iftas.org</span></a></span>).</p><p>Together, these features make moderation more scalable and less stressful, so you can spend more time engaging and less time firefighting.</p><p>Reactions, Your Way</p><p>Reactions are a big part of how conversations feel alive on the Fediverse, and now you have more control over how they appear on your site.</p><p>The Fediverse Reactions block gained a new Summary display style. Instead of showing a facepile of avatars, this option presents reactions as clean, inline counters for comments, likes, boosts, and replies. It’s a great fit for minimal layouts, feeds, or sites where avatars are disabled.</p><p>You can switch between the classic facepile and the new summary style directly in the block settings. And if avatars are turned off in discussion settings, the block automatically falls back to the summary view.</p><p>A Sneak Peek at the Reader (Experimental)</p><p>One more thing, for the curious among you, there’s now an early preview of the ActivityPub Reader, hidden behind a feature flag in the Advanced settings tab. If you don’t see it yet, open Screen Options at the top right of the ActivityPub settings page, check “Advanced Settings,” and save. That reveals the Advanced tab where you can enable the Reader.</p><p>When enabled, this adds a new “Social Web” submenu to your Dashboard menu item. An place where you can read posts and shares from accounts you follow, turning your WordPress admin into a lightweight Fediverse reader.</p><p>Because this is still very much a work in progress, the Reader is disabled by default and clearly marked as experimental. The UI, behavior, and feature set will change significantly in future releases as we explore what a great native Fediverse reading experience inside WordPress could look like.</p><p>If you enjoy testing new ideas, we’d love to hear your feedback, whether it’s bug reports, rough edges you’ve noticed, or ideas about what this Reader should become. Early input helps shape where this goes next, so feel free to share your thoughts in whatever form works best for you.</p><p>Changelog</p><p>Added</p><p>Add blocklist subscriptions for automatic weekly synchronization of remote blocklists.<br>Add compact display style to Reactions block that hides avatars.<br>Add domain blocklist importer for bulk importing blocked domains.<br>Add image optimization for imported attachments (resize to 1200px max, convert to WebP).<br>Add local caching for remote actor avatars.<br>Add relay mode to forward public activities to all followers.<br>Add scheduled cleanup for remote posts, preserving posts with local user interactions.<br>Add site health check to warn when DISABLE_WP_CRON may impact ActivityPub functionality.<br>Add Social Web Reader for browsing ActivityPub content directly in WordPress admin.<br>Delete remote posts on plugin uninstall.<br>Mastodon importer now imports self-replies as comments, preserving thread structure.</p><p>Changed</p><p>Cache expensive operations in Post transformer to improve performance.<br>Improve performance and reliability of @-mention detection.<br>Reduce federated content size by removing unnecessary HTML attributes.<br>Skip downloading video and audio attachments, embedding remote URLs directly to avoid storage limits.<br>Use stable term_id-based IDs for Term transformer to ensure federation consistency.<br>Wrap blocked domains and keywords tables in collapsible details element.</p><p>Fixed</p><p>Respect WordPress “show avatars” setting for remote actor avatars. <br>Ensure NodeInfo accurately represents site administrators to the Fediverse.<br>Fediverse Followers block now works correctly when the “Hide Social Graph” privacy option is enabled.<br>Fix NodeInfo documents to comply with schema specification.<br>Follow Me block button-only style now respects width settings from the inner Button block.<br>Preserve whitespace inside preformatted elements when federating content.</p><p>Downloads</p><p>WordPress.org: <a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/activitypub.7.8.0.zip" rel="nofollow">activitypub.7.8.0.zip</a><br>GitHub: <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-activitypub/releases/tag/7.8.0" rel="nofollow">tag/7.8.0</a></p><p>Holiday Thanks</p><p>A special thank-you to everyone who joined us during the recent <a href="https://activitypub.blog/2025/11/25/join-us-for-office-hours-dec-1-5/" rel="nofollow">office hours</a> — for the questions, the thoughtful feedback, and the great conversations about where ActivityPub for WordPress should go next. Talking directly with you helps shape these releases more than any roadmap ever could.</p><p>See you in 2026 — and happy holidays!</p> <small class="notice" x-post-type-data="type=&#x27;Article&#x27; attributed_to=None"> Takahe has limited support for this type: <a href="https://activitypub.blog/2025/12/17/7-8-0-happy-holidays/">See Original Article</a> </small>

<p>Every major version is a milestone, and 8.0.0 is no exception. Your WordPress blog just became a two-way street in the Fediverse. Visitors can like and boost your posts directly on your site. Media from federated replies is handled more reliably, and new block patterns make it easy to drop ActivityPub features into your pages.</p><p>Like and Boost, Right From Your Blog</p><p>The Fediverse Reactions block now has optional Like and Boost action buttons, inline with each reaction group. When a visitor clicks one, a modal opens where they can enter their Fediverse handle or copy the post URL to interact from their home server.</p><p>The plugin remembers the visitor’s profile in their browser, so the second time around it’s even faster. And for folks who aren’t familiar with how the Fediverse works, each modal now includes a collapsible “Why do I need to enter my profile?” help section that explains the open social web in plain language.</p><p>This dramatically lowers the friction for cross-platform engagement.</p><p>Block Patterns and Templates</p><p>Setting up a Fediverse-ready profile page used to mean manually assembling Follow Me, Extra Fields, and Followers blocks. Not anymore.</p><p>We’ve added a “Fediverse” block pattern category with four pre-configured layouts:</p><p>Author Profile with Follow, a compact profile card.<br>Fediverse Follow Page, a full-page follow experience.<br>Author Header with Follow, great for author archive headers.<br>Fediverse Sidebar, drop it into any sidebar or widget area.</p><p>If you’re running a block theme on WordPress 6.7+, there’s also a new Author Archive (Fediverse) block theme template ready to go.</p><p>Publish Smarter With Post Format Suggestions</p><p>A new pre-publish panel now analyzes your post content and suggests an appropriate post format when your object type is set to “Post Format.” Got a post that’s mostly images? It’ll nudge you toward the Image format. A video post? Video format.</p><p>This matters because media-focused Fediverse platforms like Pixelfed and Vernissage display Notes differently than Articles, so choosing the right format means your content looks its best everywhere it lands.</p><p>Community Snippets</p><p>We’ve added a snippets/ folder to the GitHub repository, a home for lightweight, community-contributed extensions that don’t belong in the core plugin but are too useful to lose. The first batch includes:</p><p><a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-activitypub/tree/trunk/snippets/fediblog-tag" rel="nofollow">FediBlog Tag</a>, automatically adds <a href="/tags/fediblog/" rel="tag">#FediBlog</a> to standard blog posts for better Fediverse discovery.<br><a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-activitypub/tree/trunk/snippets/locale-from-tags" rel="nofollow">Locale from Tags</a>, derives post locale from taxonomy tags.<br><a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-activitypub/tree/trunk/snippets/bot-account" rel="nofollow">Bot Account</a>, marks your profile as automated and displays a “BOT” badge in the Fediverse.<br><a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-activitypub/tree/trunk/snippets/blockless-activitypub" rel="nofollow">Blockless ActivityPub</a>, renders Fediverse reactions as pure server-side HTML, no JS required.<br><a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-activitypub/tree/trunk/snippets/photon" rel="nofollow">Photon CDN</a>, serves cached remote media through Jetpack’s Photon CDN for faster delivery.</p><p>Got a snippet of your own? Check out the <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-activitypub/tree/trunk/snippets" rel="nofollow">snippets folder</a> and send a PR.</p><p>Smarter Media Caching</p><p>Under the hood, we’ve rebuilt how the plugin handles remote media, avatars, emoji, images, audio, and video from across the Fediverse. Instead of importing everything into the WordPress Media Library at insert time, media is now wrapped in custom blocks and cached lazily at render time.</p><p>What does that mean for you? Faster processing of incoming content, less disk usage, and better rendering of audio and video attachments. Original remote URLs are preserved in block attributes, so caches can be regenerated without data loss. If you’re using Jetpack’s Site Accelerator, that works too, the new system is built filter-first.</p><p>For site admins, there are new CLI commands to keep things tidy:</p><p>wp activitypub cache statuswp activitypub cache clear</p><p>Minimum PHP 7.4</p><p>With WordPress 7.0 deprecating PHP 7.2 and 7.3, we’ve raised the minimum requirement to PHP 7.4. This lets us clean up compatibility polyfills and use more modern PHP features going forward. If you’re still on an older version, update your PHP before updating the plugin.</p><p>Changelog</p><p>Added</p><p>Add a help section to interaction dialogs explaining the Fediverse and why entering a profile is needed.<br>Add a notice on the Settings page to easily switch from legacy template mode to automatic mode.<br>Add a pre-publish suggestion that recommends a post format for better compatibility with media-focused Fediverse platforms.<br>Add a Site Health check that warns when plugins are causing too many federation updates.<br>Add backwards compatibility for the ACTIVITYPUB_DISABLE_SIDELOADING constant and activitypub_sideloading_enabled filter from version 7.9.1.<br>Add bot account snippet that marks ActivityPub profiles as automated accounts, displaying a “BOT” badge on Mastodon and other Fediverse platforms.<br>Add Cache namespace for remote media caching with CLI commands, improved MIME validation, and filter-based architecture.<br>Add federation of video poster images set in the WordPress video block.<br>Add Locale from Tags community snippet.<br>Add optional Like and Boost action buttons to the Fediverse Reactions block, allowing visitors to interact with posts from their own server.<br>Add pre-built Fediverse block patterns for easy profile, follow page, and sidebar setup.<br>Add snippet for blockless fediverse reactions.<br>Add wp activitypub fetch CLI command for fetching remote URLs with signed HTTP requests.</p><p>Changed</p><p>Improved active user counting for NodeInfo to include all federated content types and comments.<br>Improve language map resolution to strictly follow the ActivityStreams spec.<br>Superseded outbox activities are now removed instead of kept, reducing clutter in the outbox.<br>The minimum required PHP version is now 7.4.</p><p>Fixed</p><p>Accept incoming activities from servers that use standalone key objects for HTTP Signatures.<br>Fix a crash on servers where WordPress uses FTP instead of direct file access for media caching.<br>Fix a crash when receiving posts from certain federated platforms that send multilingual content.<br>Fix automatic cleanup of old activities failing silently on sites with large numbers of outbox, inbox, or remote post items.<br>Fix comment count to properly exclude likes, shares, and notes.<br>Fix follow button redirect from Mastodon not being recognized.<br>Fix modal overlay not covering the full screen on block themes.<br>Fix outbox invalidation canceling pending Accept/Reject responses to QuoteRequests for the same post.<br>Fix QuoteRequest handler to derive responding actor from post author instead of inbox recipient.<br>Fix reactions block buttons inheriting theme background color on classic themes.<br>Fix reactions block layout on small screens and remove unwanted button highlight when clicking action buttons.<br>Fix signature verification rejecting valid requests that use lowercase algorithm names in the Digest header.<br>Fix soft-deleted posts being served instead of a tombstone when the post is re-saved.<br>Improve compatibility with federated services that use a URL reference for the actor’s public key.<br>Improve handling of all public audience identifiers when sending activities to followers and relays.<br>Prevent private recipient lists from being shared when sending activities to other servers.</p><p>Get It</p><p>Download from <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/activitypub/" rel="nofollow">WordPress.org</a> or grab it on <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-activitypub/" rel="nofollow">GitHub</a>. Remember to check your PHP version first — 7.4 or higher is now required.</p><p>A huge thank you to everyone who contributed code, testing, bug reports, and ideas to this release. Special thanks to <span class="h-card"><a href="https://religious.social/@kraft" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>kraft</span></a></span>, <span class="h-card"><a href="https://herve.bzh/author/jeremy/" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>jeremy</span></a></span>, and <span class="h-card"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@futtta" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>futtta</span></a></span> for their snippet contributions.</p><p>Update, try out those Like and Boost buttons, and let us know what you think — what’s the feature you’ve been waiting for? What would you like to see next?</p> <small class="notice" x-post-type-data="type=&#x27;Article&#x27; attributed_to=None"> Takahe has limited support for this type: <a href="https://activitypub.blog/2026/03/05/8-0-0-smash-that-like-button/">See Original Article</a> </small>