Some nice updates coming to Mastodon profiles!
"We want people who are new to Mastodon and the Fediverse to be able to discover and connect with interesting accounts, without having to understand the details of decentralisation."
Already available on mastodon.social, and other servers running the latest code.
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/03/a-redesign-for-profiles/
Side by side comparison. I particularly like the more compact design of custom fields.
Alright, definitely don't agree with this though.
"The ‘Following you’ badge no longer displays on the profile. People we surveyed ranked this information remarkably low in terms of establishing both trust and interest an account."
Yes, I also rated it as lower than the other signals...but that didn't mean I wanted it removed?
@stefan oh! What I can say here is, we’re still listening. And I’m listening especially hard when the community says, “wait, that’s not what I meant!”
Help me to understand how this badge serves you in ways the other indicators fall short. When do you find yourself using this information? What does it allow you to achieve?
Your feedback is appreciated – we want to get this right. If it turns out that this is essential information to display up front, we’ll certainly find a solution for it.
@imanijoy Ah, I hope my comment didn't read too harsh!
Overall the updated design is great, this just caught me by surprise a bit.
I don't pay too much attention to new follower notifications, so when I find myself interacting with someone more frequently, I might check their profile, and decide to follow back.
So it's really not that this information falls short, but on its own, it just doesn't tell me enough about a person.
@katherine_montalto @imanijoy And, at least in my case, when I view a profile of a mutual, I'd like to know they still follow me.
It's nicely reassuring.
@katherine_montalto Feeling reassured, as I check your profile!
thank you for listening tho @stefan@Heliograph Ah, not the first time someone mistook me for a Mastodon team member. Just an excited fan! Sorry for any confusion!
@Irisherself @Heliograph @stefan I don’t mean to add to your disappointment, but I also want to be honest here: More UI changes are on the horizon, and some might take adjusting to.
Your input is helpful, especially when paired with some concrete examples of why certain things are important to you. There will be more opportunities to participate in research for upcoming changes, and I hope you’ll consider them as a way to help shape the direction of Mastodon.
@Irisherself You're being a bit harsh here. They are still polishing things and listening to feedback before the final release.
If this was Facebook, good luck getting in touch with anyone.
@Irisherself But here is a member of the Mastodon team engaging with feedback and listening, trying to get things right.
Sure, you could argue, it would be better if more people were able to provide feedback before changes are rolled out. That would be a fair point, maybe something they would consider.
Why not assume positive intent from someone whose hard work we all get to enjoy for free?
@Irisherself Also, and I said this in another thread, but I am not getting the sense this was a "change for the sake of change".
The blog post they shared goes into a lot of detail explaining all the updates. Did you read it?
@Irisherself Well the link is all the way at the start of this thread, but if you'd like:
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/03/a-redesign-for-profiles/
I thought it was an insightful read!
But fair enough, I understand if you prefer to move on.
It was still nice to chat, and likewise, wish you all the best!
@Irisherself And that's awesome! Thank you for keeping the fediverse free for others, you're very generous!
And your opinion definitely matters, and if you follow the conversation, all the feedback is being considered.
A poll would certainly be appreciated by others, maybe this is something you can suggest as an improvement of the design process!
@imanijoy @stefan I absolutely use every piece of the tags/badges/counts/bio and also count on the separate column heads for posts then posts and replies and then boosts.
To be fair, I have gotten more used to being in Mastodon via my iPhone and use Ivory. I’m unsure if the possible changes will only affect the website/desktop view? Maybe the changes discussed will not force a change on an app view if all the original information is kept in the software template code.
@imanijoy @stefan I hadn’t explained how I exactly use both the Follows You and Following badges. When I go to decide on a request to follow me I look first at their profile page and if I am following them already, it tells me I already vetted them and boom-done I click Approve. And it’s very interesting if I get such a request a long time after I originally began to follow them.
So if I want to know better why I’ve gotten a request to follow me, is it my recent posts or exchanges with others (shows up in current Post and Replies)? Maybe I can see that I have replied on their recent posts. Maybe I’ll guess it is because the topics I am currently posting/boosting are interesting to someone who normally doesn’t interact with me.
And before I forget, it was not intuitive at all to me that there are now dropdown options on hover for most headings/buttons. Have these been tested with screen readers to work well for the growing number of members who use them and the alt text too?
Stefan Bohacek
Imani
katherine montalto
Rihards Olups
Heliograph
iris ✿ sandwalker
beq
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