If you’ve just joined a Pixelfed server and try to send or reply to a DM, it may display an error message saying you need to wait a bit.
Don’t worry, this error message will stop appearing 72 hours after you’ve joined the server. It’s there to stop spammers, it’s nothing personal against you.
For safety reasons, the default settings on Pixelfed automatically block DMs from people you don’t follow.
If you want to receive DMs from people you don’t follow, you will need to change the settings:
If you change your mind, repeat this process but untick the box and click Submit.
To find people to follow on Pixelfed, you can use most of the same techniques and directories that Mastodon etc. users use.
If you’re using Pixelfed through your server’s website or web app, you can browse trending posts by clicking the Discover button.
If you’re using the website or web app, click the Local Feed link. This will show the latest public images posted on your server.
If you’re using the website or web app, click the Global Feed link. This will show all the latest public posts from accounts that your server has noticed, regardless of whether they’re on your server or other servers.
Yes! Pixelfed is not just about Pixelfed accounts. You can also follow non-Pixelfed accounts from elsewhere on the Fediverse like Mastodon etc. To follow a non-Pixelfed account, paste its Fediverse address into the search box within Pixelfed. The account’s profile will then appear in the search results and you can click Follow to follow it.
After you follow them, non-Pixelfed posts will start appearing in your timeline but they will look just like Pixelfed posts, and you can interact with them in exactly the same way. The process is so seamless you probably won’t notice they’re from another type of server.
You can follow them, but their text-only posts will not show up in your timeline on Pixelfed. You will only see their posts that have images or video clips attached.
It used to be possible to optionally display text-only posts by adjusting your settings on Pixelfed, but this feature seems to have been removed.
Note that links to videos don’t count as video clips from Pixelfed’s point of view. You will only see a video post show up on your Pixelfed feed if it has the video attached to the post itself.
Some servers will automatically have you follow certain accounts (often the admin’s own account), to prevent you seeing a blank feed when you first sign up. You can unfollow these accounts if you don’t want to see them.
Pixelfed is a photo and image sharing network on the Fediverse with photo-oriented features that include albums, filters, self-destructing image posts etc. You can follow Pixelfed accounts from Mastodon, and Mastodon accounts from Pixelfed.
See the official site at pixelfed.org ⧉ to find out more.
The official site has a curated list of servers to join ⧉ and there are a few servers listed on fedi.garden ⧉.
Pixelfed is an image-based platform and has very significant image-related differences compared to Mastodon:
There used to be an option in Pixelfed’s Settings page for allowing text-only posts in the timeline, but this seems to have been removed.
Yes! Pixelfed and Mastodon are both part of the Fediverse, so you can follow and interact with Pixelfed accounts from Mastodon and Mastodon accounts from Pixelfed.
A couple of things to note however:
No. Accounts are tied to particular servers, so you can only sign in on the server the account is for. If you want to use Pixelfed you will need to sign up for a separate account on a Pixelfed server.
For this reason, a lot of people have accounts on multiple servers that are specialised in different things. They might have a general social media account on Mastodon, an image account on Pixelfed, a video account on PeerTube etc.
There is, but it doesn’t sign you in with Mastodon. What it actually does is create a new Pixelfed account using information copied over from your Mastodon account. You then end up with two totally unconnected accounts (your Mastodon account and the new Pixelfed one).
There are many ways to use Pixelfed on the web and through apps. The currently available options are summarised below.
Pixelfed server websites:
Pixelfed web app for Android and iPhone/iPad:
Pixelfed Android apps from app stores:
Pixelfed iPhone/iPad apps from app stores:
Using Pixelfed through Mastodon apps:
Yes, see the Instagram import guide here for more details.
No, not at the moment. The developers know it’s a highly requested feature, but it hasn’t been done yet. If you’re comfortable using Github you can vote for this to happen ⧉.
You don’t need to crosspost because Mastodon and Pixelfed are not separate services, they are both part of the same social network.
Posts on Mastodon are already visible to people on Pixelfed, posts on Pixelfed are already visible to people on Mastodon. Mastodon accounts can be followed and interacted with by Pixelfed accounts, Pixelfed accounts can be followed and interacted with by Mastodon accounts.
There is just no barrier that requires crossposting.
You need to adjust your Pixelfed settings if you want to receive DMs from accounts that don’t follow you.
There are three main ways to create your own Pixelfed server, depending on how technical you are: