Automattic
Issue 3: Multi-Handle Support & Per-Post Author Handle Selection
Issue 3: Multi-Handle Support & Per-Post Author Handle Selection
[Feature Request] ActivityPub: Multi-Handle Support & Per-Post Author Handle Selection
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. WordPress currently allows only a single fixed handle for each site (or user) when publishing via ActivityPub. However, many users manage multiple Fediverse identities for personal, professional, or community-specific purposes (e.g., wp.com handles, custom domain handles, Mastodon/Misskey accounts). There’s a growing demand to use different handles depending on the nature of the content being published.
Describe the solution you’d like
- Enable users to register multiple Fediverse handles within their profile settings, with optional verification via
rel="me"links (possibly integrating Jetpack Social or Gravatar accounts). - Provide a UI element (e.g., a dropdown menu) in the post editor to select which Fediverse handle to publish the post with. The default would be the primary WordPress handle but could be switched to another verified handle.
- The selected handle would dynamically set the ActivityPub message’s author field and relevant OpenGraph metadata (
fediverse:creator,article:author, etc.). - Manage each user’s verified Fediverse handle list via user meta or a dedicated CPT (e.g.,
ap_extrafield).
Describe alternatives you’ve considered Continuing with the current single-handle limitation, but this reduces flexibility and limits users’ ability to manage their online identities across different communities.
Additional context This feature would empower users to actively manage and reflect their varied online identities within the WordPress-powered Fediverse — moving beyond simple profile links to full identity management.
https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-activitypub/issues/1734
It is currently possible to reference handles on other platforms through the Account Aliases setting in Users > Profile.
When posting from your WordPress site, a user posts from their WP handle. If they wanted to post from a different handle, they should create a new user account for it and use the author dropdown to specify which user to create a post with.
Provide a UI element (e.g., a dropdown menu) in the post editor to select which Fediverse handle to publish the post with. The default would be the primary WordPress handle but could be switched to another verified handle.
Aside from what @obenland already answered: This isn’t possible through ActivityPub, as it would open the door to impersonation. If you want something like that, you would need to publish through the platform that owns the handle. However, that would be a proprietary solution and no longer compliant with the ActivityPub standard.
@pfefferle
Strictly speaking, I wasn’t referring to the ActivityPub actor handle itself, but rather to the OpenGraph <meta name="fediverse:creator" content="@[email protected]" /> meta tag used by Mastodon and other platforms. Apologies if my wording caused any confusion.
Isn't that a duplicate of https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-activitypub/issues/1729
@pfefferle Thanks for pointing that out — I checked #1729, but to clarify, what I had in mind was a UI feature:
I imagined adding a dropdown field under the author selector in the post editor, allowing the user to choose one of their verified Fediverse handles. The selected handle would then dynamically update the tag in the page’s OpenGraph metadata when the post is published.
I still think this is Open Graph territory. Because this is not part of the ActivityPub spec, let's keep it simple in that plugin and (as I pointed out in #1729) use an Open Graph plugin like https://wordpress.org/plugins/opengraph/ to add different handles.