On your profile page you can set your display name, picture, banner image and short text (also known as a “biog”) about yourself.
How do I edit my profile page?
- Go to your profile page (see below if you’re unsure how to do this)
- Click Edit Profile or Edit Info (it may also be called something else on some apps)
- Change the parts of the profile you want to adjust and then click Save Changes or Save
How do I go to my profile page?
If you’ve already set a profile image, you should be able to just click on the icon that looks like your profile image to get to your profile. Your profile image is visible on the website and all the apps, usually in one of the corners of the screen.
If you haven’t set a profile image, the icon for your profile will normally be some kind of blank sihouette, depending on what you’re using to access Mastodon.
It’s really important to fill in your profile’s text description!
Your profile’s text description, also known as a “biog”, is probably the most important part of your profile page. It tells people directly what your account is about, and avoids them having to do detective work on your feed to find out what kind of account you run. It also makes your profile accessible to blind and partially-sighted people.
Profile text is crucial if you want to attract more followers. All the words in a profile are searchable in Mastodon, so people will see your account in search results for the words in your profile. Incidentally, the first line of the profile text is used in many of Mastodon’s discovery systems, so it’s particularly important that the first line sums up your account well.
Profile text is also useful if you want to restrict who follows you. Accounts that screen followers can provide details of who they accept follows from (e.g. “I only accept follows from people I know” etc).
Upload a profile picture and banner
You can upload or change the profile image and banner for your account on the Edit profile page. However, images aren’t as important as the text, and many blind people do not use profile images at all.
The images can be JPG, PNG or GIF files up to 2 megabytes in size. Pictures will be downscaled to 400×400 pixels, banners will be downscaled to 1500×500 pixels. GIFs and PNGs can be animated, though some people’s settings may prevent the animation playing when they look at your profile.
⚠️ WARNING: Do not use rapidly flashing animations on your profile images. These can be extremely dangerous to people with certain neurological conditions.
Fill in your Mastodon profile’s Extra Fields
On Mastodon, there’s also a special feature called Extra fields which creates a special section of your profile page with clearly labelled website links or any other info you want to highlight about yourself. (Extra Fields were previously known as “Metadata”.)
For example, you could have a label saying “My website” in one box and “https://example.com” in the other box next to this label. Or “My other accounts” and links to your other account addresses on the Fediverse. Or you could have a label “Favourite pizza” next to a pineapple emoji. It’s totally up to you how you use this feature.
If you add a website link in your extra fields, it’s important to include https:// at the beginning of the address so that it is clickable, and if it’s your website you can optionally verify it to prove you are the owner of the site.
Extra fields appear as prominent boxes on the website version of Mastodon, and on the official apps it appears in the About section of your profile. Third party apps will show these in various ways, usually boxes on your profile page.
To edit your profile’s Extra Fields feature through the website:
- Log in through your server’s website
- Click on your profile image to go to your profile page
- Click Edit profile, then go to the Extra Fields section of the page
- Fill in up to four labels and content. The labels can be text or emoji, the content can be links, text or emoji. If you do put links in, remember to put the https:// at the start so that they are clickable.
- Click Save changes
To edit Extra Fields through the official apps:
- Click on your profile image to go to your profile page
- Click Edit Profile or Edit Info
- Scroll down to the About section and click on the + button or Add Row to add a field
- You can edit an existing field by tapping on its title or contents to edit them
- When you’ve finished, click the Done button at the top
Third party apps may also support editing Extra Fields, and will have various interfaces for doing so.
Can I change my profile name?
You can change your profile’s display name (the name at the top of the profile) but you can’t change your profile’s account address (your handle).
Verifying your account
Verification on Mastodon happens mainly by adding a special link to your website, click here for more info about how it works.
How to add video, audio, images and even more text to your profile
If you want to greatly expand the introductory material on your profile page, try creating a post with the extra material and pin it to your profile. Pinned posts will always appear at the top of the profile for everyone who browses it, and you can pin up to five posts on a single profile. You can also reply to your own pinned posts to create pinned threads which can be as long as you want.
Pinned posts are particularly useful if you want to let people know about images, video or audio you have created, as media can be attached to posts. Artists often use them as portfolios on their profile.
If you create an introductory post about yourself, you might want to also include the hashtag #Introduction as this is the most widely used tag for new people introducing themselves. Introductions are really good posts to pin on profiles.
How can I make my profile private?
You can optionally lock down your profile so only your followers can see your posts. To do this you need to do two things:
- Restrict who can follow your account
- Set your default posting visibility to “Followers only”
If you do both these things, any followers you get after that will need your approval, and any posts you make after that will only be visible to your followers. Also, on some interfaces and apps a 🔒 padlock will appear next to your profile name to show you have restricted who can follow you.
⚠️ NOTE: Any posts you make (or previously made) with public or quiet public visibility will still be visible on your profile page. Only posts with “followers only” visibility will be hidden from non-followers.
Should I add emoji to my profile name?
You can add emoji to your profile name, but bear in mind a couple of things:
- If you use lots of emoji next to each other, they will make your name inaccessible to people with screen readers because the reader says each emoji out loud and some of them have very long descriptions. One emoji is usually accessible though.
- Custom emoji aren’t guaranteed to work on profile names. Custom emoji are designed for use in posts and profile descriptions, they may display incorrectly in names on some interfaces and apps.