A new version of Mastodon 4.4 has been released, bringing a host of changes to things like profiles and lists, as well as laying the groundwork for post citations.
In profiles, you can add specific hashtags so that people can see all the posts you’ve tagged with those hashtags, according to Mastodon. Mastodon is also making changes to the way pinned posts work: you can still pin up to five posts to your profile, but they will now appear as a single carousel, so you don’t have to scroll down to the bottom of the page to see new posts. When you view a profile, Mastodon can now tell you how many people you follow are also following that person.
Regarding lists, Mastodon claims that creating and managing them has been “greatly simplified” and that “adding and removing accounts from lists is easier than ever, both directly from profiles and from your own lists of followers and followers.”
And with the quoting posts that Mastodon has already said were in the works, the platform is doing what it calls “part one” of the rollout. “Because Mastodon runs on more than 8,000 independent servers that together form the platform you know, releasing features like this requires a two-pronged approach: first, we release the code that supports the processing and display of this new format, and then we release the code that allows our users to actively use this feature,” Mastodon says.
In version 4.4, “you will be able to see quotes from compatible Fediverse platforms (including future releases of Mastodon),” but you won’t actually be able to quote posts until Mastodon 4.5.
Other new features include a reminder to add alt text to the images and videos you post, an update to Mastodon’s mobile web interface to “mimic native apps,” and simplified onboarding.
