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:

video.wordpress.com/embed/Lxu1…

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.

ActivityPub for WordPress

2025-06-06 14:08:49

6.0.0 – New Kids on the Block

Our latest release brings a lot of improvements — especially to our blocks!

The Follow Me and Followers blocks now have a fresh design, better interactivity, and broader support for ActivityPub-enabled users.

The Reactions block and “Reply on the Fediverse” feature also now take advantage of the latest Block Editor features and are built on the Interactivity API for a smoother experience.

We’ll follow up soon with a deeper dive into the new block features — stay tuned!

Fediverse Followers

• 
  Chris :freedo: :supertuxkart:@crse
• 
  cuNha@mudaste
• 
  Jeff Sikes@box464

Follower navigation

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Beyond blocks, publishing new blog posts now reliably sends a Create activity to the Fediverse, so your followers won’t miss a thing. We’ve also improved how hashtags and @-mentions appear when posts federate to Mastodon and other platforms.

Under the hood, we’ve cleaned up and modernized the codebase — and the plugin now requires WordPress 6.5 to take full advantage of the latest WordPress features.

Meanwhile, we’re kicking off a major rework of the Followers/Following system. Expect more enhancements to roll out over the next few weeks. Plus, we’ll be publishing a blog post with our roadmap plans in the coming days — exciting things ahead! 🚀

Full Changelog

Added

• Enhanced markup of the “follow me” block, for a better Webmention and IndieWeb support.
• The actor of the replied-to post is now included in cc or to based on the post’s visibility.

Changed

• “Reply on the Fediverse” now uses the Interactivity API for display on the frontend.
• Bumped minimum required WordPress version to 6.5.
• Default avatar and error handling for the reactions popover list.
• Ensured that publishing a new blog post always sends a Create to the Fediverse.
• Followers block has an updated design, new block variations, and uses the Interactivity API for display on the frontend.
• Follow Me and Followers blocks can now list any user that is Activitypub-enabled, even if they have the Subscriber role.
• Likes and Reposts for comments to a post are no longer attributed to the post itself.
• New system to manage followers and followings more consistently using a unified actor type.
• Re-enabled HTML support in excerpts and summaries to properly display hashtags and @-replies, now that Mastodon supports it.
• Refactored to use CSS for effects instead of JavaScript, simplifying the code.
• Refine the plugin’s handling and storage of remote actor data.
• The Follow Me block now uses the latest Block Editor technology for display on the frontend.
• The Reactions block now uses the latest Block Editor technology for display on the frontend.

Removed

• Cleaned up the codebase and removed deprecated functions.

Fixed

• Added forward compatibility for Editor Controls, fixing deprecated warnings in the Editor.
• Avoid type mismatch when updating activitypub_content_warning meta values.
• Default number of attachments now works correctly in block editor.
• Fixed a bug in Site Health that caused a PHP warning and missing details for the WebFinger check.
• Fixes a bug in WordPress 6.5 where the plugin settings in the Editor would fail to render, due to a backwards compatibility break.
• Improved automated setup process for the Surge caching plugin.
• Improved excerpt handling by removing shortcodes from summaries.

Downloads

• WordPress.org: downloads.wordpress.org/plugin…
• GitHub: github.com/Automattic/wordpres…

Followers v2 and Following v1 Milestone · Automattic/wordpress-activitypub

ActivityPub for WordPress. Contribute to Automattic/wordpress-activitypub development by creating an account on GitHub.

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