
Since 2022, running a blog website Tumblr has been teasing its plans to combine with the fediverse — the open social internet powered by the protocol ActivityPub additionally utilized by Mastodon, Threads, Flipboard, and others. Now, the Automattic-owned running a blog platform is sharing extra details about when and the way that integration may really occur.
Because it seems, the present plan to tie Tumblr into the open social internet will come about by the use of the positioning’s deliberate move to the WordPress infrastructure.
Automattic confirmed to TechCrunch that when the migration is full, each Tumblr consumer will have the ability to federate their weblog by way of ActivityPub, simply as each WordPress.com consumer can right this moment.
The corporate famous that the migration may additionally enable for different open internet integrations, like giving Tumblr customers a solution to run different customized plug-ins or themes.
Final summer season, Automattic introduced it could move its half a billion blogs to WordPress, to make it simpler for the corporate to construct instruments and options that labored throughout each companies, whereas additionally permitting Tumblr to benefit from the open supply developments from WordPress.org.
Although the WordPress group itself is in a state of upheaval, finally operating Tumblr’s again finish on WordPress would enable for higher efficiencies, whereas not altering the interface and expertise that Tumblr’s consumer base has grown to like.
Automattic declined to share a time-frame as to when the migration can be full, given its scale, however a rep for the corporate known as the progress thus far “thrilling.”
Customers have been curious in regards to the state of the corporate’s open social internet integrations, which Tumblr said in 2023 were still being worked on. Lately, one consumer requested in regards to the firm’s plans in a Q&A on Tumblr’s Work In Progress blog. Right here, Tumblr confirmed that fediverse integration was “one large motive” for the migration itself, and that it could “for certain” embrace help for WordPress’ existing ActivityPub plug-ins, which permit weblog homeowners to sync their posts and take part within the wider open social internet.
Nevertheless, Automattic declined to share if it’s going to at any level contemplate integration with the AT Protocol, which powers the rising social networking startup Bluesky, one other open social internet participant.
When requested particularly about how Bluesky would possibly match into these plans, a spokesperson would solely touch upon its ActivityPub progress.