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.

Screenshot that shows the onboarding checklist.

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.

Screenshot that shows the new help tabs.

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.

Screenshot that shows the preview feature.

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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