Mastodon 4.6 introduces collections, redesigned profiles, and improved profile editing

Mastodon 4.6 is now publicly available, a few days after the release candidate, marking a major update to the open source, decentralized, and federated social platform that uses the ActivityPub protocol. The update introduces collections, which let users create and share curated lists of up to 25 profiles (this number might evolve in the future). Privacy controls let users decide if their profile can be added, and each addition triggers a notification with an option to remove oneself. To avoid abuse, there is no “follow all” option for collections currently.

Following the debut of collections, profile pages have received a redesign to streamline navigation. Viewing a user's original posts or their full activity now requires fewer clicks, and chosen preferences automatically apply when browsing other profiles. Featured hashtags have also become more visible and easy to access.

Building on this, the profile editing experience has been updated, so users can edit directly from their profile page instead of opening a new tab, crop images within Mastodon, add alt text to enhance accessibility, and manage the visibility of the media and featured tabs.

Further changes enable anonymous visitors to subscribe to a user's posts via e-mail if opted in. Additionally, each December, Mastodon will now offer an annual year in review summary, generated only if the user agrees. Additional accessibility improvements include better keyboard navigation, refined focus management, improved color contrasts, and enhanced screen reader support.