activitypub

In this version of ActivityPub for WordPress, most blocks received a pretty fundamental overhaul of their technical infrastructure, design, and functionality.

The biggest change is almost invisible—all blocks now use WordPress’ Interactivity API 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.

Let’s dive in and look at each block individually.

Follow Me Block

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.

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.

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.

But that’s not all! The Modal containing the follow information also received a slight makeover, making it more theme-agnostic in its appearance.

Followers Block

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.

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.

We also introduced a new Card style here (you might’ve spotted it in the 6.0.0 announcement). 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.

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.

Reactions Block

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.

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.

Remote Reply

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_Gs1t0qe78

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.

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

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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).

Why HTTP Signatures Matter

When you interact with the Fediverse, you want to know that the messages you send and receive are genuine. HTTP signatures 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.

A Bit of Background: draft-cavage and RFC 9421

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.

For a long time, most of the Fediverse has used what’s called the draft-cavage-12 specification. 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.

Recently, the community agreed on a final, official version of these rules, called RFC 9421. 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.

Incoming Support for the New Standard, Out of the Box

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.

Outgoing Requests and the Double Knock Approach

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.”

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.

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.

Improved Verification for Existing Signatures

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.

Looking Forward

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.

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.

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