this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2026
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Why is Pixelfed an extra network and not just a Mastodon client? (leminal.space)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by SebZuen@leminal.space to c/fediverse@lemmy.world
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Hey group,

Why is there not a Mastodon client to only utilize the media grid and pack it into an Instagram layout?

When I was exploring Bluesky and its clients a while ago, I actually liked the approach of having one central protocol and then having clients strip different masks over it. The Flashes app, for example, packed the media posts from your regular Microblog-profile into a Instagram-layout, while still keeping all your regular followings.

The federation between Pixelfed instances and Masto instances doesn't seem to be 100% working to my eyes. Likewise, when I look at my Pixelfed account via Masto client, it doesnt show me the pictures in the media grid.

I know this touches the very core of ActivityPub federation, but during the last years I couldn't figure out why fedi-networks never interacted completely.

Please correct me if I got something wrong or you know about obvious alternatives that I haven't stumbled upon yet.

Cheers! Enjoy the sun today!

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[–] DrCake@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

I guess it’s a case of “why not”. I’m sure someone could make a client that does the same thing but there’s a few features of mastodon that are geared towards text content rather than just images (quote posts). Likewise there’s probably some features that make sense for an image first platform that probably aren’t needed for mastodon (showing camera setting used).

Hopefully federation between the two does improve to the point that you maybe couldn’t tell at first glance of a profile is on one or the other.