wordpress

We’re excited to share this roadmap — there’s a lot happening with the ActivityPub plugin, and we can’t wait to show you what’s coming next.

We often refer to this roadmap in GitHub issues and discussions, but until now, we haven’t published a full roadmap post — nor a formal changelog. This post is a first step toward keeping the community more informed about what’s planned and what’s coming up next.

Our goal for this year is to finalize the full ActivityPub experience — so that WordPress can be used as a first-class citizen of the Fediverse. This means enabling not only publishing to the network, but also following, reading, interacting, and moderating — all in a seamless way that feels natural for WordPress users.

This roadmap is not set in stone — priorities may shift based on community feedback, WordPress updates, or changes in the wider Fediverse. But it should give you a good sense of where we’re going.

Followers/Following

This is what we’re currently working on. You can follow the progress on GitHub.

Right now, the plugin supports only Followers. It doesn’t yet offer a way for your site to follow others in the Fediverse. But with new initiatives like the “Reader Experience,” this will need to change.

To support true two-way relationships — both Followers and Following — we need a database model that can clearly represent both types of connections. The current system, which relies on GUIDs to track remote actors, wasn’t designed for this. At the moment, it can store a remote actor as a follower of your site, but it doesn’t easily support the ability for your site to follow them back.

Implementing Following cleanly will require rethinking how this data is stored and connected.

Actors

This ties into a broader challenge with how the plugin currently models actors — both local users on your site and remote users from other Fediverse servers.

Today, the plugin uses virtual users to represent these actors. This was a practical choice early on to get federation working without rewriting how WordPress manages users.

But as the plugin grows — especially with features like Following and the Reader Experience — this approach is creating friction. Virtual users don’t behave exactly like regular WordPress users, so each time we add new features, we end up writing special workarounds.

Over time, this adds complexity and makes the system harder to maintain. Moving toward a more unified model for actors — one that integrates more naturally with WordPress’s existing structures — will keep the plugin flexible and reliable.

Moderation

Currently, the plugin relies on WordPress’s built-in “Disallowed Comment Keys” system to filter unwanted content at the inbox endpoint — before any ActivityPub request is processed. This mechanism allows you to block activities based on keywords or domains, using the same rules you’d apply to comments.

However, this approach is fairly blunt: it’s a simple keyword filter, not a nuanced moderation tool. This limitation will become more important as the plugin expands — for example, when adding support for image-based comments or richer media interactions.

Building a dedicated filtering mechanism is an important step toward giving site owners fine-grained moderation tools that are tailored to the unique challenges of federated content.

More details:

👉 GitHub — Question: How does this plugin interact with moderation and trust & safety on the fediverse?

Reader

A full Reader experience is one of our long-term goals — it’s the final big feature needed to give WordPress sites a complete ActivityPub/Fediverse experience.

Today, the plugin lets others follow your site, but there’s no built-in way for you to subscribe to and read content from others — in other words, there’s no “timeline” yet inside WordPress.

We plan to start with a simple, flexible approach: focusing first on storing remote posts in a way that’s compatible with tools like the WordPress.com Reader or third-party plugins like Friends or the Event Bridge for ActivityPub.

Once this foundation is in place, we’ll iterate on direct support — making it possible for site owners and users to follow and read Fediverse posts right inside WordPress.

Direct Messages

As part of this evolution toward a full Reader experience, we’re also exploring support for Direct Messages.

This is a frequently requested feature and an important part of richer Fediverse interactions. We plan to start with an initial implementation that enables private messaging — and then build on it as we learn from real-world use.

Fully delete profiles

One key principle of the GDPR is the “right to be forgotten.”

Currently, the plugin supports remote deletions, but does not trigger Delete Activities for local user actions.

The challenge is that WordPress operates differently from most federated social networks. Users might expect Delete Activities for certain actions that could have major consequences — for example, deactivating the plugin.

But deactivating a plugin is also a common troubleshooting step in WordPress.

To address this, we first need to define different use cases and guide users on how to trigger Delete Activities appropriately.

More details:

👉 GitHub — User Delete Milestone

Client-to-Server API (exploration)

In addition to the way servers communicate with each other across the Fediverse, ActivityPub also defines a “Client-to-Server” API.

This API is mainly designed to allow apps and clients (such as mobile apps) to publish content to a Fediverse server.

In the future, this could open up interesting possibilities for WordPress — for example, allowing WordPress to act as a bridge or proxy, making it easier to bring in and federate content from other tools or platforms.

At this stage, we’re exploring and evaluating this based on community interest and potential use cases.

Staying Informed

We’ll continue to keep you informed about the progress of this roadmap.

For each new release, we’ll publish posts highlighting the latest features and improvements. For larger projects — like the Reader experience or expanded moderation tools — we’ll also share regular updates so you can follow along as the work evolves.

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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Getting started with ActivityPub on WordPress just got a lot easier. A new guided onboarding experience is now part of the plugin, designed to help you configure key settings and understand how your site connects to the Fediverse—from the moment you activate it.

Whether you’re new to ActivityPub or just setting things up again, the onboarding flow helps you make informed choices around visibility, content formatting, and profile setup. It’s built to give you confidence that your content is reaching the right audiences in the right way.

Tailored for You

The plugin now adapts its behavior based on the caching plugins you have installed. You’ll also find clearer guidance if you’re using Surge, and an option to fine-tune how your content is tailored for browsers versus Fediverse services.

We’ve moved profile-related settings out of the welcome page and into new dashboard widgets, so they’re easier to find and update. And to make the learning curve smoother, the Help tab now includes a section explaining how ActivityPub works on the users page.

Media, Previews, and Performance

Beyond onboarding, this release adds support for audio and video attachments in ActivityPub embeds and previews. Posts shared to the Fediverse can now include up to four images, and you can choose how many to include on a per-post basis. Editor previews have also been improved—they now show media even if the post hasn’t been published yet.

For performance, author profiles now return a smaller set of extra fields (up to 20) to avoid bloated responses, and invalid items in the Outbox are skipped gracefully instead of causing errors.

Designed to Grow With You

This update also brings better mobile support for settings pages, improved documentation, and more robust error handling for things like missing or misformatted Outbox requests. And for developers, several filters and hooks have been updated or deprecated to make future work smoother and more predictable.

If you’ve been curious about joining the Fediverse or connecting your blog in a more structured way, now’s a great time to try it. Just activate the plugin and let the onboarding guide you through the rest.

Tried the new onboarding? Let us know how it worked for you and what you’d like to see improved.

Full Changelog

Added

ActivityPub embeds now support audios, videos, and up to 4 images.
Added a check to make sure we only attempt to embed activity objects, when processing fallback embeds.
Add setting to enable or disable how content is tailored for browsers and Fediverse services.
Adjusted the plugin’s default behavior based on the caching plugins installed.
A guided onboarding flow after plugin activation to help users make key setup decisions and understand Fediverse concepts.
Author profiles will cap the amount of extra fields they return to 20, to avoid response size errors in clients.
Fediverse Preview in the Editor now also supports video and audio attachments.
Guidance for configuring Surge to support ActivityPub caching.
Help tab section explaining ActivityPub capabilities on the users page.
Profile sections have been moved from the Welcome page to new Dashboard widgets for easier access.
The ActivityPub blog news feed to WordPress dashboard.
The Outbox now skips invalid items instead of trying to process them for output and encountering an error.

Changed

Batch processing jobs can now be scheduled with individual hooks.
Better error handling when other servers request Outbox items in the wrong format, and 404 pages now show correctly.
Fediverse Previews in the Block Editor now show media items, even if the post has not been published yet.
Hide interaction buttons in emails when the Classic Editor is used.
Improve compatibility with third-party caching plugins by sending a Vary header.
Much more comprehensive plugin documentation in the Help tab of ActivityPub Settings.
NodeInfo endpoint response now correctly formats localPosts values.
Reactions block heading now uses Core’s heading block with all its customization options.
Settings pages are now more mobile-friendly with more space and easier scrolling.
The number of images shared to the Fediverse can now be chosen on a per-post basis.
Updated default max attachment count to four, creating better-looking gallery grids for posts with 4 or more images.
Use a dedicated hook for the “Dismiss Welcome Page Welcome” link.
Use FEP-c180 schema for error responses.
Use Audio and Video type for Attachments, instead of the very generic Document type.

Deprecated

Deprecated rest_activitypub_outbox_query filter in favor of activitypub_rest_outbox_query. Deprecated activitypub_outbox_post action in favor of activitypub_rest_outbox_post.

Fixed

Broken avatars in the Reactions and Follower block are now replaced with the default avatar.
Email notifications for interactions with Brid.gy actors no longer trigger PHP Warnings.
Improved support for users from more Fediverse platforms in email notifications.
Improved the handling of Shares and Boosts.
Issue preventing “Receive reblogs (boosts)” setting from being properly saved.
Mention emails will no longer be sent for reply Activities.
Prevent accidental follower removal by resetting errors properly.
Properly remove retries schedules, with the invalidation of an Outbox-Item.
The blog profile can no longer be queried when the blog actor option is disabled.

Downloads

WordPress.org: https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/activitypub.5.9.0.zip
GitHub: https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-activitypub/releases/tag/5.9.0

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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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