Sharing content to Mastodon is getting easier with the addition of a universal “Share to Mastodon” button for the decentralized social media platform. Announced on Monday, the widget allows users to share content on any Mastodon server by connecting your Mastodon account and redirecting you to the server that account is on. The blog post announcing the feature also explains that the tool “works entirely in your browser: there is no tracking data, and it does not store any information on the server.”
Previously, a “share” widget wasn’t available on Mastodon mainly due to the technical challenges that come with the platform’s decentralized design. As Mastodon’s blog post says, “The distributed nature of the network is the greatest strength of Mastodon, but it also means that having a share button that takes you to the ‘correct’ Mastodon server for your account is a lot more involved than a simple hyperlink.” While third party solutions existed, the blog notes that none had become ubiquitous, or easy to find.