Making the Social Web a Better Place: ActivityPub for WordPress Joins the Automattic Family
If you’re a blogger or content creator who wants to reach a wider audience, the ActivityPub plugin is perfect for you.
We’re excited to announce that Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, has acquired the popular WordPress plugin ActivityPub.
This innovative plugin brings a whole new level of social networking to your website by integrating it with the wider federated social web. When installed, the plugin allows you to easily share your content and interact with users on Mastodon and other platforms that also support the ActivityPub protocol.
Just as Automattic aims to do with all of our products, this plugin helps to decentralize the web, break down silos, and foster a more connected online ecosystem.
Why you should use the ActivityPub plugin
If you’re a blogger or content creator who wants to reach a wider audience, the ActivityPub plugin is perfect for you. Just as Jetpack Social — another one of our great plugins! — automatically shares content to large social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, ActivityPub automatically allows anyone on a federated network to follow your blog’s posts, which will show up in their Home feed. The federated networks include:
Responses on those platforms show up in your WordPress post’s comments, allowing you to interact directly with readers across the fediverse, streamlining engagement and creating a more cohesive online presence.
Moreover, in using ActivityPub for WordPress, you’re supporting the open source movement, promoting transparency and collaboration, and empowering users to take control of their online experience and contribute to a more diverse and inclusive internet landscape.
How to install ActivityPub for WordPress
Installing the ActivityPub plugin is a breeze, even if you’ve never added a plugin before.
1. From your dashboard’s left-side menu, navigate to the plugin marketplace and search “ActivityPub” (all one word). Alternatively, you can click here and go directly to the plugin page.
2. Click “Install and activate.”
3. Once activated, you can click “Manage plugin,” which allows you to choose the type of content that will show up in fediverse feeds — if you’re not quite ready for that, you can always access it later under “Settings” → “ActivityPub.”
At Automattic, our philosophy has always been to democratize publishing and make the web a better place. In our acquisition of ActivityPub for WordPress, we’re doing that for the social web.
WordPress.com News 
This is great news! Any plans for adding this capability to WordPress.com blogs?
LikeLiked by 11 people
I have waited a long time for an announcement like this, but it seems that this functionality may only be available for WordPress Business and above? When I tried to install this on my Premium plan, I was told that I would need a plan upgrade, but not what that upgrade might be: it’s presumably an upgrade to business as I don’t find any other options that would support plugin installation. I’d absolutely love to incorporate ActivityPub into my blog as I truly believe in the open web, but I’m not willing to pay 3X what I’m already paying just to gain access to a single plugin. Is there some other way to add this to accounts lower than Business tier? If not, I truly hope that Automattic will consider merging this somehow into Jetpack, so that all of us can truly take part in the open web.
LikeLiked by 9 people
Hi there, for the moment this plugin is in beta, so it has not been incorporated with the WordPress.com platform directly. For now, the only way to use this feature is to upgrade to the Business Plan or use a self-hosted WordPress site with a “traditional web host.”
We don’t have a specific timeline for adding this functionality for all WordPress.com sites, but we would announce it here in our blog. Thanks for your patience!
LikeLiked by 8 people
First comment 😁. This is really cool actually, thank you for making such a great post. Once I get some things in place I’m definitely going to have to make use of this awesome plugin!
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It should be understood that installing this plug-in — that democratises publishing and makes the web a better place — requires your subscription to be on the Business plan or higher, so is not for Personal or Premium accounts.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Now for it to be available for all users, not just buisness.
LikeLiked by 6 people
We’re working on it! Since it hasn’t been integrated into WordPress.com yet (which will take some time), the only way to use this feature at the moment is to upgrade to the Business Plan or use a self-hosted WordPress site with a “traditional web host.”
We don’t have a specific timeline for adding this functionality for all WordPress.com sites, but we would announce it here in our blog. Thanks for your patience!
LikeLiked by 2 people
You were right installing the plugin was amazingly easy. but I couldn’t find the entry for manage plugin which would allow me to to set things up. Have I missed something here?
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Hi there, the settings for the plugin are found in your site admin area. In the sidebar on the right, look for Settings > ActivityPub
You can find a full explanation of how the plugin works, as well as a few examples to help clarify, by reading the the info provided by the plugin author here: https://github.com/pfefferle/wordpress-activitypub#description
Hope this helps!
LikeLiked by 7 people
It is not very clear to me when someone make a statement that they are demonstrating a product or access when they are busy buying up independent related businesses and determining to use factor of those products.
I’ve always understood the “market” to be an amalgamation of varied interests in a field interactions, buying, selling and trading. Today all portals of such activities are being owned and influenced by fewer and fewer minds, in an arena of slavish drones waiting for the next offering. In such a case how can we believe the market is free, or the processes democratic? This is truly a quandary of perception.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Hi Maho-Art, this is all sounding a bit strange to me as well. Not sure what to do about it. Let me know if you choose another option? Would ya.
Are they saying they own our work, can send it off to any of the options they listed above, and make money? We get nothing? This is the part that’s confusing me. Help!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Open source, transparency and collaboration, empowering, user control, diversity and inclusiveness ~ what wonderful words! 👏👏👏
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👍
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👍
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Fantastic effort, Nice idea
LikeLiked by 8 people
Awesome
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Pretty ridiculous to announce that it’s available and not mention that it’s in beta and only available to business customers at this time. So we all went to install it and were confused.
LikeLiked by 4 people
We’re working on it! Since it hasn’t been integrated into WordPress.com yet (which will take some time), the only way to use this feature at the moment is to upgrade to the Business Plan or use a self-hosted WordPress site with a “traditional web host.”
We don’t have a specific timeline for adding this functionality for all WordPress.com sites, but we would announce it here in our blog. Thanks for your patience!
LikeLiked by 4 people
That’s fair enough. Happy to wait. I used to have a self-hosted site when I was a kid, but found it to be quite a lot of hassle in the end compared to wp.com, which I guess is the whole idea. And it definitely seems like a good idea to embrace this kind of open social system after what we’ve seen happen at Twitter.
Also, re-reading my comment, it comes across as a lot less polite than was intended. So I apologise for that.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Awesome!
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This is a good plug in.. Thanks so much for this.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Best
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How do we add it onto our website? How much does it cost? Is it only in beta? Etc…
LikeLiked by 4 people
Hi, you can install it from the Plugins Marketplace. Here’s a direct link: https://wordpress.com/plugins/activitypub
The plugin itself is free. However, to install it on your WordPress.com site, you’ll need to upgrade to the Business or eCommerce plan. Those are the only plans that allow the installation of plugins.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Very good information.
LikeLiked by 3 people