Protocol handler?
Fediverso
17
Posts
9
Posters
170
Views
-
I'm going to register a protocol handler, so links to anywhere on the fedi will be opened in the user's home instance.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/registerProtocolHandler
Has anyone already done this and if so what was the prefix you used? We might as well all use the same thing. I'm thinking
web+fedi.rimu@piefed.social interesting idea... I know Evan has some thoughts about this as part of his ActivityPub HTML discovery project
https://swicg.github.io/activitypub-html-discovery/
I am not sure why they did not settle on protocol handlers but I've tagged him for comment
-
The concept sounds excellent, although there is fairly limited mobile support.
Since NodeBB is an installable PWA it would be definitely nice to have it supported there as well.
-
@julian I write about this here: near zero mobile browser support but strong desktop browser support- and I suggest a JavaScript fallback for the others …. https://www.timothychambers.net/2025/06/24/the-seven-deadly-fediverse-ux.html
-
I'm going to register a protocol handler, so links to anywhere on the fedi will be opened in the user's home instance.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/registerProtocolHandler
Has anyone already done this and if so what was the prefix you used? We might as well all use the same thing. I'm thinking
web+fedi.@rimu web+acct
-
I'm going to register a protocol handler, so links to anywhere on the fedi will be opened in the user's home instance.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/registerProtocolHandler
Has anyone already done this and if so what was the prefix you used? We might as well all use the same thing. I'm thinking
web+fedi.It's a good idea, but
web+fediorweb+activitypubis maybe too broad to be useful? I wouldn't want a Lemmy post to open in Mastodon, and pretty sure opening a Mastodon post in Lemmy is impossible unless the post was directed to a community.web+threadiversecould solve that issue but that's kinda hacky. Too bad (AFAIK) they can't be stacked likeweb+fedi+threadiversewith some kind of priority system.There was a discussion about this for Lemmy but it was never implemented https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy-ui/issues/3031
Maybe the real solution is to improve Lemmy and Mastodon so that they are capable of doing these things decently.
I was actually thinking of making a browser extension that handles this instead. Each Fediverse software could write something to
window.fediverseor something like that, with tags for threadiverse, group support, micro blogging, etc. The extension could have methods to infer these values for existing platforms. But the extension could give a dialog box to redirect, based on your preferred instances for certain tags. -
@rimu web+acct
What does acct stand for?
-
What does acct stand for?
-
I'm going to register a protocol handler, so links to anywhere on the fedi will be opened in the user's home instance.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/registerProtocolHandler
Has anyone already done this and if so what was the prefix you used? We might as well all use the same thing. I'm thinking
web+fedi.web+ap, which was proposed by Fedilink authors. To my knowledge, it is the most widely adopted proposalhttps://web.archive.org/web/20250402041648/https://fedilinks.org/
(the main site seems to be offline now)
cc @SoniEx2
-
web+ap, which was proposed by Fedilink authors. To my knowledge, it is the most widely adopted proposalhttps://web.archive.org/web/20250402041648/https://fedilinks.org/
(the main site seems to be offline now)
cc @SoniEx2
Are there implementors of web+ap? I'd be interested in adopting.
I assume the fallback behaviour is to just assume https?
-
@julian Fedilinks website lists 3 MastoAPI clients, but the list is incomplete. I saw Fedilinks being mentioned in changelogs of other clients too.
There was also an Akkoma PR, it was closed by the author: https://akkoma.dev/AkkomaGang/akkoma/pulls/589. I don't quite understand the reasoning, perhaps @smitten could clarify.
-
@julian Fedilinks website lists 3 MastoAPI clients, but the list is incomplete. I saw Fedilinks being mentioned in changelogs of other clients too.
There was also an Akkoma PR, it was closed by the author: https://akkoma.dev/AkkomaGang/akkoma/pulls/589. I don't quite understand the reasoning, perhaps @smitten could clarify.
The PR comments suggest that making the various changes to the backend were too large to justify, and a front-end only approach would be preferred? smitten@key.portend.place
It raises a good point though, where if you serve
web+ap://, it's not understood by clients that are not aware of this scheme. If there were a way a client could communicate whether there is a protocol handler registered, then the server could tailor its response. -
Glad to see more people having this idea! The problems we ran into were in helping the browser understand the address and know where to forward. Each server implements lookup routes differently, so there's not necessarily a generic path that you can trust is available on https on the person's home server, even if you know their home server origin. So in some ways the feature should be offered by your home server software, maybe offering a website that does the handler registration to its known lookup/redirect address.
But that is limiting in a few ways. It's a lot of extra steps for each person to do (browsers' default UI for registering protocols is not obvious or easy). It doesn't carry over to different devices, and if you have more than one home server in some way, you are back dealing with that not-great browser UI to pick which handler you want.
In general people are more accustomed to registering protocols to apps they have installed, especially phone apps. It's much easier to register them there and you don't have to have approval flow UI, but taking that approach moves this whole served handler route out of the backend again, so we have to start thinking more along the lines of web+ap-compatible servers that handler clients know how to call or bounce to.
@julian@community.nodebb.org @silverpill@mitra.social @SoniEx2@chaos.social @rimu@piefed.social -
Glad to see more people having this idea! The problems we ran into were in helping the browser understand the address and know where to forward. Each server implements lookup routes differently, so there's not necessarily a generic path that you can trust is available on https on the person's home server, even if you know their home server origin. So in some ways the feature should be offered by your home server software, maybe offering a website that does the handler registration to its known lookup/redirect address.
But that is limiting in a few ways. It's a lot of extra steps for each person to do (browsers' default UI for registering protocols is not obvious or easy). It doesn't carry over to different devices, and if you have more than one home server in some way, you are back dealing with that not-great browser UI to pick which handler you want.
In general people are more accustomed to registering protocols to apps they have installed, especially phone apps. It's much easier to register them there and you don't have to have approval flow UI, but taking that approach moves this whole served handler route out of the backend again, so we have to start thinking more along the lines of web+ap-compatible servers that handler clients know how to call or bounce to.
@julian@community.nodebb.org @silverpill@mitra.social @SoniEx2@chaos.social @rimu@piefed.socialAlso I want to highlight this excellent comment by Yumechi about fingerprinting and de-anonymization risks.
https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/fep-07d7-a-custom-url-scheme-and-web-based-protocol-handlers-for-linking-to-activitypub-resources/3588/53
@SoniEx2@chaos.social @silverpill@mitra.social @julian@community.nodebb.org @rimu@piefed.social -
Also I want to highlight this excellent comment by Yumechi about fingerprinting and de-anonymization risks.
https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/fep-07d7-a-custom-url-scheme-and-web-based-protocol-handlers-for-linking-to-activitypub-resources/3588/53
@SoniEx2@chaos.social @silverpill@mitra.social @julian@community.nodebb.org @rimu@piefed.social@smitten_ Do you know what is the status of Fedilinks? Has it been abandoned?
FEP-07d7 was withdrawn, and other proposals have even less support than these two. -
I'm going to register a protocol handler, so links to anywhere on the fedi will be opened in the user's home instance.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/registerProtocolHandler
Has anyone already done this and if so what was the prefix you used? We might as well all use the same thing. I'm thinking
web+fedi.rimu@piefed.social I've been using web+acct for the acct URI format.
Feed RSS
Gli ultimi otto messaggi ricevuti dalla Federazione
-
oh ok so *here's* a neat feature of #Mastodon lists that I had hitherto been unaware of:
You can set them to include replies from list members to:
- No one
- Members of the List
- Any followed userThis is REALLY COOL. The 🤯 option for me personally is to be able to include only replies that members of the list sent to other members of the list. Great for "Local" lists, or lists for a busy topic bubble!
You can also change this setting later!
-
@awiro_median @awiro-median 👋 habt ihr den WP-Cron richtig konfiguriert? Die Bestätigung wird über den Cron verschickt und wenn der nicht oder nur selten läuft, funktioniert es nicht oder dauert entsprechend.
-
@FediGarden @rysiek Thank You!
-
Warm up the fire! We're LIVE!
Fireside Fedi - Episode 67 - Carmen-Lisandrette - Mission: Libre
#owncast #streaming #interview #fediverse #fedi #people #show #firesidefedi #FsF
-
I've had requests for accounts to follow on here for specific countries/regions. There are many listed at:
➡️ https://fedi.directory/local-and-regional
This has accounts from most European countries, all US states, all Canadian provinces etc. (Some have fewer accounts than others though.)
To follow an account listed on the site, copy-paste its Fediverse address into the search box in Mastodon, then click follow.
To find out more about an account on the site, click its Fediverse address.
-
Good day all! Upcoming episode of Fireside Fedi!
The #livestream will be on: stream.firesidefedi.live
Special Guest: @rileytestut@mastodon.social
Building emulators and app stores for iPhone with shanegill.io
So don't miss it!
It will happen on 05 February 2026 at 14:00 US Eastern Time ( UTC-5 )
If by any ungodly chance you miss the show:
#PeerTube ( #VOD ): tubefree/@firesidefedi
#firesidefedi #fediverse #fedi #interview #freesoftware #opensource #userfreedom #freedom #resistance
-
@crossgolf_rebel @pfefferle @awiro-median @awiro_median Erster Anlaufpunkt bei Fragen wäre nicht der Entwickler sondern das Supportforum: https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/activitypub/ - es gibt noch mehr die daran arbeiten und dort helfen könnten :)
-
@awiro_median@norden.social Bei mir kommt der komplette Artikel.
Ihr habt doch ein Blogprofil mit ActivityPub, ihr braucht dann den Beitrag hier nur noch teilen, wenn ihr eurem Blog selber folgt.
Das spart das Verlinken und Kommentare hier, landen als Kommentare in eurem Blog.
Und ich würde den Text "auf Mastodon teilen" dringend ändern und in "Fediverse" umbenennen.
Mastodon ist nur einer von vielen Zugängen in dieses Netzwerk und die Hälfte aller user hier, benutzt gar kein Mastodon und können trotzdem mit allen interagieren.
So wie ich hier, ich nutze auch kein masto
