Discussion
After publishing the results of Discovery Week, we can now give you a first sneak peak at Mastodon 5.0, our next big version. It will bring a new visual look to your screens, a refreshed and calmer layout, as well as a new composer.
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/08/5.0-laying-the-foundation/
@Mastodon Adding 2 menu clicks to post a message? Not a good idea. I would keep important actions flat (non overlapping), and non-modal.
@tonroosendaal this isn't accurate. What's actually true in the new design:
From a post's actions menu, or from a profile: "Message {user}." No changes in the number of clicks.
Replying to a private mention: Click "Reply". No changes in the number of clicks.
Initiating a message from the Messages (formerly private mentions) page: There's actually an added entry point here, reducing friction. @Mastodon (1/2)
From the fab: Click on the fab, then click on Message.
Or, from the 'New post' entry point: Having already started a post, select the visibility dropdown and then 'Compose a message instead.'
Previous experience: The composer is always visible, but the visibility dropdown initiates the change to a private message. The redesign therefore introduces one additional click on desktop only, a tradeoff for conserving space. Users on smaller screens >> no additional click. (2/2)
@Mastodon
Speaking of hashtags, could you lift the limit that it's only possible to follow six hashtags in one column at a time? This feels arbitrary and limiting.
@Mastodon @imanijoy this reads great! Very much looking forward 😊
One thing that trips me up very often that I did not find mentioned, is that when you regularly switch between languages in your posts, like when you interact with German and international audiences, you often forget to adapt the post's language. Could you build in something that intervenes before sending the post out that will suggest another language if post content and setting do not match?
@Mastodon
>"If you follow any hashtags, you’ll see them in the side navigation. "
That's fine, but are those posts still going to show up in our timeline as usual? (good) Or are you saying that we won't see them unless we click the hashtag in the sidebar? (bad) It's not clear.
Because if the behavior we're used to suddenly changes and we no longer see posts of followed tags in our timeline, most people won't even realize that they're missing those posts. It won't be obvious that they can only see them if they click on it in the sidebar (the expected behavior would be that clicking it would just be done if we want to see *only* the posts of followed tags).
So please don't just quietly remove these posts from our timelines, where we're used to seeing them, unless/until there's an obvious new setting to turn seeing them in the timeline On or Off.
Thanks
Fellow autists: You may wish to block autoplay of video in your browser whilst reading this. Otherwise you may find (as I did) that all the moving stuff on screen makes it impossible to concentrate on reading the text.
@ratcatcher yes, completely agree. I don't actually think autoplay is required on the blog posts – will look into how we can remove it so no end user configs are required. @Mastodon
@ProcessParsnip inline replies on desktop web is the end goal, and probably doable for 5.1. We simply don't have the resources to address this in 5.0 @mterburg @Mastodon
@Mastodon Most of this seems like pretty good ideas and I'm happy to see Mastodon sitting down with people and addressing common points of confusion!
Two questions about "Messages", though:
- From what I recall of the documentation, private mentions can be seen by anyone sharing a server with one of the participants if they're given a direct link. How do you explain that when a chat interface is introduced?
- Making "whisper" subthreads under public posts covering aspects of the subject you might not want visible to the whole world is a very good use case for private mentions, how are you going to handle that?
@HaTetsu in 5.0, messages and private replies will only be moved out of the feed views and profile pages. Post/thread views will not be impacted. I realize they have some particular use cases that require careful handling.
If 'whisper' subthreads is a common case for you, may I get in touch to understand more when we get deeper into exploration? @Mastodon
@imanijoy i do this too. Most of the time, the OP has a public question like do you know a place where I can go to a bar safely and i will do reply as a private answer because i want her to know only her, and or and don't want other fedi users to know i go to that place too.
@imanijoy Just FYI, @mcc also posted about this (and a few other points) yesterday. Here's a deep link into the thread: https://mastodon.social/@mcc/117118866863461890
@Mastodon So many great and inspiring stuff packed in this post! And all this from a single designer (!), you're a true rockstar @imanijoy ! ✨
Quick feedback :
- the mention about DM being not encrypted show a lock icon and at first I though the locker icon was actually showing a locked-state. I wonder if such icon isn't confusing as generally a lock icon is used to inform about secure stuff
1/2
- "powered by" wording might not express clearly the instance is connected to the mastodon/fediverse "network". If I take the example of the instance I manage, https://reseauCulture.fr , it's true that by emphasizing the instance logo and title users might find it clearer that they *are* on this instance precisely but I'm afraid then they might miss the sense that it's connected to a much broader network, they might lack the bigger picture perspective of the fediverse. 2/2
@imanijoy @Mastodon I think yes. Also, today when institutions from this instance communicate about it, I invite them to share that "find us on mastodon" or even "find us on the fediverse". That way we're all advocating for the same network and hopefully there's a mutual gain in promoting the network. But today, with this new design, what will be best to say? If each people promote their specific instance instead of the whole, I'm afraid the overall message might be scattered and lacks clarity.
@Mastodon The usability looks good, but I can't help but feel the character is lost. It's a bit bland. Be bold, take risks! Don't be afraid to stand out. I like the Mastodon colour scheme (and logo). It feels a shame to lose that.
@imanijoy I'm not sure how much insight I can give but I'm happy to share my impressions if you think it might help :).
@imanijoy that makes sense, and sounds exciting! I appreciate what you're doing. Redesigns are never easy, but this is one of the rare cases where the vast majority of feedback I've seen has been positive (which is what happens when you prioritise the user I guess!).
@ahaldorsen @Mastodon Yeah I can see the intent there. I hope it works out that way. I do like the new design overall.
WTF is this nonsense: "What this means practically for 5.0: If you follow any hashtags, you’ll see them in the side navigation."
NO NO NO. Not all of us are on big desktop monitors. Why rush the enshittification? Some of us use hashtags.
@KanaMauna What exactly is your concern here regarding screen size? Followed hashtags won't be any harder to use on smaller screens in the redesign.
The announcement says “If you follow any hashtags, you’ll see them in the side navigation.” I do not use the multiple feeds layout and the side navigation is much smaller than the main feed. Are you changing that?
@KanaMauna This might be a misunderstanding. You'll see the _list of_ hashtags in the side navigation, similar to how you do in the current navigation (when expanded). The hashtag feeds can still be browsed individually, or as part of Home.
@Mastodon most of this sounds great, but if the feedback you got was primarily about how the compose workflow is fine and the real problem is "higher-level and often cultural," why do you then go on to show off the new compose ux and never address the cultural issues?
@kostyn because the cultural issues are so, so much bigger to solve than anyone could responsibly do in three months – especially a team of our size and limited resources. We have to start somewhere, and reducing confusion in a primary area that contributes to a lack of felt safety (composer visibility controls) was something achievable that felt meaningful, even if not monumental. Thank you for asking! @Mastodon
@Mastodon I don't remember saying "This current UI is crap, someone please change it." I haven't seen anyone else saying that in the corner of Mastodon that I inhabit either. Just out of curiosity, how many people clamoured for this redesign?
@David
Where #Mastodon diverges dramatically for users of ExTwitter, FarceBook, and so forth is that you're not stuck with the "official" UI. If you don't like it, you use something else. If you think Mastodon needs a really snazzy all-singing, all-dancing front end that makes it look like another product, make it available separately.
@Mastodon
@vik Once again, it's not about me (nor you for that matter), but it's about people who don't use Mastodon because they don't like the UI.
As they're not users, it's very unlikely that they know what makes the Fediverse specific and highly customizable.
All of this is not theoretical, by the way, but comes from many discussions I had with both friends and strangers about why they don't want to use Mastodon.
@vik I assume it's the same way all products get enshittified: you add someone with a job title like "Head of Design" and now they think they need to constantly "innovate" to justify their existince. Slow and deliberate UX cleanups unfortunately don't make for flashy blog posts.
@citizen428
It's one of those jobs where, if you're doing it well, nobody should notice.
Conversely, if people are going "Wow! That's a dramatic UI!" Then eye candy is probably taking up too much display resource.
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