Archive:Mastodon features explained

Screenshot of Mastodon's basic interface

Let's go through every Mastodon feature...

Register for an account

So you have decided to get a Mastodon account and found an instance you want to join.
Registering for an account all you need is a working email address and a password.

Profile name

Choose a profile name. This will be part of the handle you'll be found under.
In this case the chosen profile name is PaulaToThePeople and the handle will be @PaulaToThePeople@climatejustce.social.
You can choose a different display name than your profile name.

Email address

Enter your email address. It's important you remember which one you chose and that you have access to the address.

Password

Choose a strong password. It's best to use a generated password and store it in a password manager like KeePass.
You'll have to enter the password twice to make sure there is no typo in it.

Server rules

To create an account you have to agree to the server rules. Read them carefully as you have to follow them and the other people on the instance have to too.
So don't just make sure you are okay with them, but also that you want others to behave accordingly.

Confirmation email

When you hit "register" you'll be sent a confirmation email. In that email there will be a link you have to click to confirm your email address and unlock your account.
Check your spam folder if you don't get the email.

What Mastodon looks like for new users

At the beginning you'll see the basic interface and follow suggestions.

Follow suggestions

The first thing you'll see, when you open Mastodon after creating your account, will be some follow suggestions.
These are based on who other people on your instance follow.
You can follow someone by clicking on the + symbol to the right or check them out first by clicking on the user name.
To stop showing the follow suggestions just click "done" on the bottom.

If you want to see some more follow suggestions later on just go to ".../web/start" in your browser's url field.

Basic interface

The basic interface is the default when you are new to Mastodon. You can switch to the advanced interface in the settings.
Below we'll describe all the functions present in the basic interface.

Toots

In Mastodon posts are called toots.

Text

In the text field you can write basically whatever you want, as long as it is allowed on your instance and is not longer than the character limit, which is usually 500 characters.
In the bottom right of the toot interface you can see how many characters you have left.
In the screenshot you can see that 5000 characters are left, because the screenshot was taken on an instance with a modified character limit.

Emoji

Click on the laughing emoji in the top right of the text field to add emoji.
Besides all the known emoji instance admins can add custom emoji. You can request new custom emoji by contacting your instance admin.

Hashtags

Adding hashtags is simple. Just put the # character right before the word.
So e.g. #FridaysForFuture.

Mentions

To mention someone enter @ followed by their profile name (not the display name). If you have already interacted with the user they will be suggested to you when you start entering the profile name.
When you want to mention a user that you haven't discovered yet, you have to enter the full handle (@profilename@instance.domain).

Links

Of course you can also add links to your toots. Simply paste the url into the text field.
You need to past the whole url, including the https:// so the link will be clickable.
Don't worry about adding long urls, they will not use up as much characters as they actually have.

Attachments

Click on the paperclip symbol to add an attachment. You can add up to 4 pictures, a video or an audio file.
When you add a picture or video you can mark it as sensitive, so it will be blurred and people have to click on it to see the unblurred version. You can only add an attachment or a poll to a toot - not both.

Media descriptions

Click on the edit button to add a media description. You usually have 1500 characters for your description, so more than for the toot itself.

Polls

Click on the 3 bars besides the paperclip to add a poll. You can add up to 4 poll options or more if the Mastodon instance is modified.

Visibility

The next symbol in the row, a globe, lets you change the visibility of your post.

• Public
  Unless you changed it in the settings toots will be public by default. Public means everybody can see your toot on your profile, in public timelines and - if they follow you - in their home timeline.
• Unlisted
  When you post an unlisted toot everybody can see it on your profile and followers can see it in their home-timelines, but it won't be displayed on public timelines.
  People can boost your toot, but the boosted toot will follow the same rules.
• Followers-only
  Only followers can see that toot on your profile and in their home timelines. The toot can not be boosted.
• Direct
  A direct message can only be seen by people who are mentioned in it. You can add more than one people to a direct message. If you later on add more people to a direct conversation, they will only see the new messages, since they are mentioned.

Content Warnings

The last symbol in the row - the cw - stands for content warning. When you click on it a smaller text field will appear above the larger text field.
When you post a toot with a CW people will at first only see what you have written in the smaller text field and have to click to see the larger text.
When you add a picture or video to a toot with a cw then the media will automatically be marked sensitive. You can however click on the checkbox to change that.
Besides warning people about possibly triggers CWs are sometimes also used for jokes - the punchline being hidden.

Search

You can search for people and hashtags and - on some instances - for posts.
You can find accounts either by searching for their profile name or their display name. To find an account that you have never seen before you have to add the whole handle (@profilename@instance.domain) or the url of the profile. When you search for a hashtag you'll be shown all hashtags that start with the search phrase you used. So e.g. if you search for "fridays" the results will include "FridaysForFuture", but if you search for "future" they won't.

Announcements

Continuing on the interface in clockwise direction the next function is the announcement display. It is hidden behind the megaphone symbol.
If the instance admin wrote an announcement it will be displayed here. If there is more than one announcement you can click the arrow symbols to see them all.
Once you read all announcements the blue dot on the megaphone symbol will disappear until a new announcement appears.

Home timeline settings

Right besides the megaphone symbol there is a settings symbol. Click on it to change what is displayed on your home timeline.
You can hide or show boosts and replies. By default boosts as well as replies will be displayed in your home timeline.

Home timeline

The home timeline will display posts by users you follow. Depending on what you selected in the settings above it will also display toots someone you follow boosted and replies by people you follow.
What will not be displayed are e.g. replies by people you don't follow on toots by people you follow.

Posts in a timeline

Someone boosted

On top of the post will be displayed if this toot was boosted to appear in your timeline and by whom it was boosted.

Time

In the top right corner you'll see the time the toot was posted. If you click on the time the post will open in a new tab.

Hide image

If an image is attached to the post you can hide it and it will be blurred, just like with sensitive media.

Reply

On the bottom the first symbol is the reply button. Click on it to reply to the post.
The person who wrote the toot will automatically be mentioned in your reply. Don't remove that mention, or the person will not be notified of your reply.

Boost

The next symbol is the boost button. Boosting is what retweeting, reblogging or sharing is on other platforms.
So if you click on the button the post will appear in your profile as well as in the home timelines of your followers.
The original author of the toot will be notified that you boosted it.

Like

Liking a post will also notify the author of the toot and - like boosting - the post will show a count of how many times it was liked.
Other than that it has a similar function as bookmarking the toot - you can see all the toots you liked in a separate view.

Expand this post

The following functions can be found in the dropdown menu - the last symbol in the row.
Expanding a post will show it instead of the home timeline (different in extended interface) and display replies underneath it.
You can also get to the expanded view by simply clicking on the post - but make sure you don't click on a mention, hashtag or link.

Copy post url

This function simply copies the direct url of the toot. You can use this to share the toot somewhere else - e.g. in a messenger.

Embed

This function copies the html code that lets you embed the toot on a website.

Bookmark

Bookmarking a toot is like liking it, except the author won't be notified and there is no count of how many times a post was bookmarked.
You can see your bookmarked toots in a separate view than your liked toots.

Mention

This function starts a new post mentioning the author of the toot. This is not like replying as the post you start will not display underneath the authors post.

Direct message

This is like the mention function except the visibility of the started toot will be set to "direct".

Mute, block, report, block domain

See further down

Notifications

Whenever someone interacts with one of your toots or sends you a message you'll be notified.
The notifications button will display a marker if there are unread notifications, unless you changed that in the notification settings
Click on the notifications button to see all notifications instead of the home timeline.

Notification settings

In the top right corner you can change some settings about the notifications.

Clear notifications

This removes all notifications from the view.
You don't need to remove notifications to remove the unread notifications marker though.

Unread notification markers

Select whether to show or hide the unread notifications badge on the notifications button.

Quick filter bar

By default you can choose between all notifications and mentions.
If you hide the quick filter bar you can't choose anymore and will only be shown all notifications.
If you show the quick filter bar and select "display all categories" too, you'll be able to see only relies, only likes, only boosts, only poll results, only updates from people you follow or only new followers.

Desktop notifications

Next you can choose what kind of notification will be displayed for each category.
Desktop notifications are popup notifications on your computer that don't just show up while you are in the browser.

Show in column

Here you can hide notification types from your notifications view. E.g. if you get too many notifications you can hide likes to only see "more important" notifications.

Play sound

This simply changes whether you get a sound notification for each type of notification.

Local timeline

The local timeline displays all toots by people on your instance. Boosts and replies are not shown.
If you are on an instance with a specific theme or for a specific location the local timeline is usually more interesting than on a general purpose instance.

Media only

In the top right corner you can select whether only posts with media attachments will be shown in the local timeline.

Federated timeline

The federated timeline displays toots by everybody who is known to your instance.
Here you can also choose whether to only display toots with media.

Remote only

This option will hide toots from people on your instance from the federated timeline.

Direct messages

Here you'll be shown every direct message you are part of - the ones you sent and the ones you received.

Favorites

Here you'll see every toot you liked starting with your latest like.

Bookmarks

The bookmarks column shows every post you bookmarked.
When you don't want a toot to show up here anymore click on the dropdown menu for the toot and select "remove bookmark".

Lists

Here you can create and view lists.
Lists are timelines containing only toots from people you put on that list.
So e.g. you can create a list of people who post very interesting stuff so you don't miss any of their posts.
A list will only display new posts from users since they were added to the list.

Profile Directory

The profile directory displays new or active users from your instance or from all over.
People can choose not to be displayed in profile directories in the settings.

Preferences

This button takes you directly to the appearance preferences.

Follows and followers

This button takes you to the Follows and followers section of the settings.

Trends

Here you'll see 3 trending hashtags.
You can hide this in the settings and the admin can hide this for everybody on the instance.

Advanced Interface

You can switch to the advanced interface in the appearance settings.
The advanced interface display more than one column at once. By default it displays the home timeline and the notifications, but you can "pin" the local & federated timeline, the profile directory, direct messages, bookmarks, favorites and lists too.
When you search for a hashtag you can pin that too and then select whether you want to display additional hastags in that timeline and switch between all toots with those hashtags or just local toots.

Profiles

Click on a profile picture to get to the user's profile.
Let's start with your own profile.

Your profile

Display name

After your header image and your profile image the first thing from top down is your display name.
The display name is also what's shown prominently on each post. It can, but doesn't have to be the same as the profile name.
You can change the display name in the settings.

Handle

Below the display name you can see your handle. It is @profilename@instance.domain.

Profile fields

Next you can see up to 4 profile fields where you can e.g. display your links. You can add profile fields in the settings.

Profile description

Next is your profile description or bio. Here you can write something about you. You can include emoji, links and hashtags. You can write the bio in the settings

Join date

Underneath your profile description - at least on most instances - you'll see the date you joined that instance.
This is not necessarily the date you joined the Fediverse, as you could have started on another instance.
Even if you move instances this date will not transferred.

Following and follower stats

Next you'll see the number of toots you posted, how many people you follow and how many people follow you.
The number of posts includes replies and non-public posts.

Posts, posts & replies, media

Next you can choose whether below your posts will be shown (starting with your pinned posts), posts and replies or just posts with media.
If you choose media only the media will be displayed in thumbnails. If you click on one of them you'll see the media in large, but still not the post.
Below the media you'll see some buttons - one takes you to the post.

Interactions with your own posts

You can interact with your own posts like with other peoples posts, including replying, liking, boosting, bookmarking and more.
Additionally you can do the following.

Pin on profile

You can pin up to 5 toots on your profile. They will show on top of the other posts.
It's a good idea to pin toots that say something about yourself - like maybe your intro post.
If someone discovers your profile for the first time it might look empty from their point of view of the Fediverse, if it wasn't for your pinned posts. Pinned posts are always discovered with the profile.

Delete

This function is quite self-explanatory. It deletes your post. The post won't be recoverable.

Delete & redraft

Mastodon doesn't have an edit toot feature. What comes closest is delete & redraft.
This deletes the post - all boosts, likes and replies will be gone - and you can edit it to post again.

Someone else's profile

Here we'll go through everything that's different on someone else's profile than on your own.

Follows you

If the user follows you this will be displayed on top of the profile.

Follow/Unfollow

Next you'll see the follow or unfollow button. If you click on follow it might turn into a "cancel follow request" button instead of the unfollow button.
This happens if the other person locked their profile.

Notify me

If you follow the profile you'll see a bell symbol besides the unfollow button. Click on it to receive notifications every time the user toots something.

Mention & direct message

We covered this before.

Hide boosts

This will hide boosts by that user in your public timelines. This can be useful if the person toots interesting stuff, but boosts too much uninteresting stuff.

Feature on profile

You can feature other users' profiles on your profile in a separate tab.
They will be displayed as recommendations below your bio.

Add/remove from lists

Here you can add the profile you're looking at directly to a list or to lists or remove them.

Mute

Muting a user means toots by them and toots mentioning them will be hidden, but they can still see your toots and follow you.
You can select whether you still get notifications when the user interacts with you as well as how long the mute should last.

Block

Blocking a user hides their toots and toots mentioning them as well as blocks the user from seeing and interacting with you and your toots.

Report

Reporting a user sends a report to your instance admin and - if you so choose - also to the admin of the instance the user is on.
You can select posts by the user to include in the report and write a bit about why you are reporting them.

Block domain

This blocks not just the user, but the whole instance the user is on. This is e.g. used to fight spam, trolling and harassment by a whole instance.
When you block an instance its usually a good idea to also send a report or a direct message to your instance admin, so they can choose whether to block the domain for everybody on your instance.

Profiles in separate tabs

When you open a profile in a separate browser tab or window there will be more things shown than when you open the profile in the same tab.

E.g. you'll see all the user's toot instead of just the ones known to you.

User's choices

Below the user's bio you'll see other profiles the user chose to feature on their profile.
You can see up to 4 of them. If the user highlights more than 4 then you can reload the tab and see 4 random profiles again.

Featured hashtags

Below the featured profiles you'll see featured hashtags if the user chose some in their profile settings.
Click on one of the hashtags and you'll see all the posts by the user that mention that hashtag.

Instance description and trending now

If you continue further below you'll see an image and a description of the instance the user is on and below that the hashtags that are currently trending on that instance.

Settings

If you go to your settings you'll fist end up in the preferences -> appearance part of the settings, but above that are the profile settings.

Profile settings

Appearance

Display name

Here you can choose the name that will display prominently on your profile and your posts.
A display name can contain spaces and emoji.

Bio

Here you can write a short text about you to tell visitors of your profile who you are.

Header

The header image will only be displayed to people if they visit your profile. It will be displayed on top like a banner.

Avatar

The avatar is your profile image that won't just be displayed on your profile, but also on all your toots.
An avatar can be transparent.

Require follow requests

Choose whether you want everybody to be able to follow you instantly, or whether you want to approve follow requests.

This is a bot account

This option doesn't do much except mark your profile as a bot. This is e.g. chosen if you predominantly crosspost from Twitter or feed your toots from RSS.

Suggest account to others

This option will display your profile in the profile directory and in the follow suggestions.

Profile metadata

Here you can define 4 user fields. Many people use this to link to their homepage(s) or to display their pronouns.

Verification

You can verify a link in your profile fields by adding the rel="me" attribute to a link back from that homepage to your profile.
There is a link that you can just copy and paste on your homepage.

Moving from or to a different account

Moving is explained in this article.

Delete account

If you really don't like mastodon of course you can delete your account. After all you are the owner of your data.
This might not delete all your posts people boosted from those people's profiles.

Featured Hashtags

Here you can select up to 10 hashtags to be displayed on your profile.

Preferences

Appearance

Interface Language

Choose what language Mastodon communicates with you in.
This doesn't affect the posts in your timelines as Mastodon doesn't have a translate feature.

Site Theme

Choose between the standard theme, a high contrast theme and a light theme. The high contrast theme will display links and hashtags in blue.

Enable advanced web interface

Here you can choose between the basic interface and the adanced interface.