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 will there be a dark mode version of this UI?
@fiend_unpleasant @Mastodon Mastodon already has a great dark mode. It would be ridiculous to simply abandon it
@fiend_unpleasant yes, there is a dark mode. @nuranyak @Mastodon
@Mastodon hey, this work looks great.
I'd like to put in a gentle request for letting replies to a post go to the audience for that post by default. So, if I'm replying to a followers-only post by Eugen, my reply also goes to Eugen's followers.
Issue here:
@evan
I’m proud to be a volunteer nurse, helping others even in the hardest moments. But behind my smile, I’m carrying a very heavy life. I live in a tent under extremely difficult conditions, and I am the only provider for my family. Every day is a struggle to find food, medicine, and basic needs while still trying to care for others.
Please don’t ignore our pain.
https://chuffed.org/project/171645-manar-in-gaza-help-her-family-rebuild-hope
@evan we want to make changes to tjis, but that will require a lot of work and will come in a future version. 5.0 does not change things at ActivityPub level. We started some internal discussions are are still trying to figure out what to build here exactly, and how it can work at scale.
We will communicate around this when we ourselves know more.
@Mastodon
This is how replies to followers-only posts on Instagram, Facebook, and X work. It lets the OP start a private conversation among their friends, family, colleagues and neighbors.
The Mastodon behaviour is for a reply to a followers-only post to be addressed to the followers of the replier. Only people who follow both the original poster and the replier can see the whole thread. If someone else replies, the intersection gets smaller and smaller.
It attenuates the conversation.
@Mastodon Yeah not a fan of moving the compose into an overlay like that. Bottom right is so far out of my normal viewing zone.
Other networks put DMs/Messages in the lower right, so putting a global post box there is kind of weird.
I have a feeling this will have a LOT of pushback if there's not an option to retain an older look/feel.
@Mastodon : can we set our preferred default for visibility, quotes, etc., so that we don't have to go through all these every time we post something ? For instance I never want to post a reply to myself (aka a thread) that's quiet ; Mastodon keeps forcing some toots to be quiet only to tell me "careful now, you added a hashtag but this is a quiet post so it won't be seen !".
Then why did I opt in the search ? Why did I put a hashtag ? Clearly I want my post discoverable. Let me make it default.
@ladyteruki @Mastodon (On the web) Click "Preferences", then "Posting defaults".
@Gargron @Mastodon : thanks for your reply but I have already set to public by default as you can see, yet I still regularly get toots that are automatically set as quiet when I add a post to an existing thread. And when I type a hashtag, then do I get the warning about my toot being quiet, so I have to manually change it to public. The hassle hasn't disappeared.
@ladyteruki @Mastodon When you reply, it inherits the visibility of the post you're replying to.
@Mastodon great !
I’m building from main daily. Will this be in alpha soon ? Is there a tag we can follow ?
@Mastodon im personally not a fan of a pop-up composer. it makes me feel like im using email and i have to drag my cursor all the way to the corner of my screen.
maybe a good compromise would be allowing the composer to be pinned to the, now empty, right sidebar?
it would also be great if it was more customizable, e.g. have the navigation on the left or right side of the screen.
@pinkflameinthepan @Mastodon : I feel exactly the same way. I'd love to be able to pin it where I want it.
@Mastodon what is the reasoning for the wide reaching interface/ux changes? Yknow, theres a lot of folks here that dont respond well to change. #actuallyautistic Also, it looks like crap.
@RotHorseKid No need to be rude.
They asked people for feedback, they were running sessions all week. Might be worth participating next time.
@stefan 1. I am using Mastodon in my spare time, it's not my job. Thats the reason why I support it financially.
2. Aw sorry. When I evaluated my feelings towards the visual changes, "looks like crap" was what I came up with. If that invalidates my criticism for you, so be it.
@RotHorseKid Well I'm happy to hear that you also support Mastodon financially, as do I.
And I get being frustrated, but come on. I'm sure they're doing their best. And they're sharing all this to get our feedback, I'm sure they will listen very carefully.
@stefan they will. I didn't intend to be rude. I build a lot of corpo ui/ux, and "looks like crap" is a very valid and heartfelt response in my book.
@RotHorseKid Fair enough, I suppose! I just felt bad.
@stefan @RotHorseKid reading that comment made *me* feel bad and I didn't have anything to do with it!
@stefan Please believe me, I didnt intend for anyone to feel bad. 😔
@Mastodon I think the new compose window is great! Only the 'posts' vs 'messages' is confusing for translators, because 'post' and 'message' are translated to the same word in multiple languages. Although it can be solved by adding 'private' as a prefix in the translated language. What I miss here in the compose window is the option to create a thread. E.g. Bluesky has the option.
I don't see the benefit of using the word 'feed' again. I don't like it for the local end federated timeline, and also not for lists. So we now we have even two types of feeds. Also feed is difficult to translate in other language.
What I also really like to see is the option to add more photo's and the option to connect multiple accounts in the interface.
@joenepraat @Mastodon I've been translating "feed" as "timeline", so I guess that would work. It might also be worth taking a look at what these are called in Friendica/Hubzilla and *key.
I'm a big fan of cross-software terminology consistency, and that "Collections" aren't the same thing in Mastodon & Pixelfed is already a usability problem. Why not call them "Starter Packs" like on BlueSky? PeerTube made the same mistake by changing "server" to "platform".
@gunchleoc Yes we as well. @Mastodon
@Mastodon these are great user facing improvements. From an admin perspective I really like the emphasis on the server branding. I really hope that this is an indication that in the very near future we will see admin ability to change character, poll, and other options only configurable by custom code modification. These have been asked for for many many years. I am optimistic the new energy going into development means we will see this finally happen. It is a huge hurdle.
... sigh
And the most requested feature by far, Reply Gating, is nowhere.
@ohmu That...will take a bit longer.
@stefan
This sounds like the same thing I read in 2022 when I joined.
Then I read a past where somebody showed it was the same thing that had been said for a decade.
And I've seen nothing reporting progress on these back end technical challenges.
I'm afraid I've lost some of my faith in good intention by this point.
@ohmu I totally hear you, and don't blame you.
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/14762 has been open since *2020*.
Still, having the Mastodon team publicly address this *does* give me a bit of hope. And the ticket hasn't been closed yet?
We'll see!
@Mastodon If we are getting a new look, I would like to request: 1. Ensure tiny screen support remains usable (I use mobile web) and 2. Let me see the whole post when replying. I keep having to pop in and out of the editor when replying to a long post.
@Epic_Null Absolutely this. I tend to end up using it on desktop as I use a tiling window manager. Replying to long posts is near impossible as you can't see what you're replying to.
@tripplehelix @Epic_Null @Mastodon Indeed, I'd like to be able to reread the post I'm replying to, and ideally the thread before, when I reply on mobile.
@Mastodon Mastodon 5.0 seems cool
Seems cool to you, not to me. I like it the way it is. I’m not the only one. How about making it possible for individuals to choose which format to use?
@LevZadov @PhillipPlays @Mastodon everyone has a choice of using different apps and Web interfaces.
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