Mastodon 4.6 introduces email newsletters, allowing creators to reach subscribers who don't have fediverse accounts. The feature is opt-in and permission-gated due to server cost concerns, targeting institutional users like the European Commission and German state governments. The release also adds Collections — shareable curated profile lists of up to 25 accounts with abuse-prevention controls — and a redesigned profile editing experience. Accessibility improvements were partly sponsored by the Dutch government. With only 735K monthly active users compared to Bluesky's 44.8M and Threads' 450M+, Mastodon hopes email can bridge the gap between the open social web and mainstream audiences without requiring new account creation.
282 Impressions