Post by @rolle@mementomori.social

I got my first hands-on experience with the Mastodon v5 alpha today (main branch). You can see the latest vanilla build in the screenshot. The core team still has a lot of work to do, as the right sidebar is completely empty right now. On iPad, it looks great.

This is the first time the main branch has looked this unfinished, though I realize it is a bleeding-edge nightly build. Still, I would have kept v5 behind a feature flag or in a separate branch until all the elements were in place.

I need to carefully consider which version to update our branch to, if at all.

The future of Mastodon Bird UI and its variants remains an undecided mystery.

#MastoAdmin #Mastodon #MastodonAlpha #MastodonNightly #MementomoriSocial #MastodonBirdUI #BirdUI

#birdui #mastodonbirdui #mementomorisocial #mastodonnightly #mastodonalpha #mastoadmin #mastodon

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Rolle Laukkarinen

@rolle@mementomori.social last wk.

I hope many things will change for the better during development for Mastodon v5. Another UX quirk: when you click the "New post" button in the top left, the compose box appears in the bottom right.

For users with tunnel vision, like my wife, it makes you feel like nothing happened. But even for fully sighted users, it forces you to travel a long distance with the mouse.

The UX needs a lot of work.

#UX #Mastodon #MastodonNightly

Mastodon dev environment screenshot for the nightly version (Work in progress)

Rolle Laukkarinen

@rolle@mementomori.social 2 days ago

The change is better, but I'm not sure if the bottom is still the right place for the compose panel.

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/10/5.0-a-closer-look

#Mastodon #UX

Mastodon Blog

5.0: A closer look

October is here, and it's almost time for Mastodon's 5.0 release! We announced our plans for big changes back in August. In this companion article, we're hoping to shed light on some of the decisions behind this major UI overhaul.

Rolle Laukkarinen

@rolle@mementomori.social 2 days ago

In my world, it would still feel most natural like this, near the top and in a modal (see the very quick mockup of mine).

When I'm typing, I want the compose form to be in one place or where I can most expect it, focused. Like I suggested a couple of years ago: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/27102

(I don't have time for further discussions or a proper channel for suggestions/chats right now, so ping @imanijoy @diondiondion)

#Mastodon #MastoAdmin #MastodonTheming #Mastodonv5 #UX #UI

GitHub

Re-think the overall layout design to more natural direction · Issue #27102 · mastodon/mastodon

Pitch After six months of designing my own Mastodon UI inspired by the design choices in the world of microblogging, as a UI/UX front end designer/developer I've really come to a conclusion that a ...

Dion

@diondiondion@indieweb.social 2 days ago

@rolle Personally, I think this would be nice to have as an optional full-screen mode. But it doesn't seem like a good default, as it prevents scrolling and reading what you might be replying to without first minimising the composer.

1 more reply

Teemu Kalvas

@tkalvas@mastodontti.fi 2 days ago

@rolle The bottom is the opposite of the right place. The feed is chronological, new posts go to the top, so the widget for making new posts belongs at the top.

Henkka Laukka

@henkka@some.henkkalaukka.fi last wk.

@rolle I think I saw in a mock image somewhere that the new post button is eventually going to be a circular button on the bottom right 🤔 So basically just like every service does it these days.

Rolle Laukkarinen

@rolle@mementomori.social last wk.

@henkka Two months ago it was like that. Not in today's build. https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/08/5.0-laying-the-foundation/

I think some things will change based on feedback. It feels odd that the right column is meant to be empty. If they decide to leave it blank, I will probably add secondary items like search, trends, and follow suggestions there in our fork.

View

Veera Laukkarinen

@mustikkasoppa@mementomori.social last wk.

@rolle En huomannut postauskenttää ennekuin kerroit missä se sijaitsee. Näkökenttäni on hyvin pieni ja en ymmärrä tätä ratkaisua. En halua uuteen versioon tällaista. Uusi postaus nappi ja postauskenttä pitää olla samassa paikassa, ei näytön toisella puolella.

gabboman the wafrn dev

@gabboman@gabboman.xyz 2 wk. ago

@rolle@mementomori.social

Wow its getting wafrned

Dion

@diondiondion@indieweb.social 2 wk. ago

@rolle We should've added the famous "This space intentionally left blank" note

Rolle Laukkarinen

@rolle@mementomori.social 2 wk. ago

@diondiondion Out of curiosity, and because I haven't been following the roadmap and discussions too closely, is something planned for it? Like trending, follow suggestions, and stuff like that?

Dion

@diondiondion@indieweb.social 2 wk. ago

@rolle We're currently looking into this after user feedback (there's an experimental feature flag to put a search field there), but the original redesign plans (see https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/08/5.0-laying-the-foundation/) didn't intend for a third column.

View

Rolle Laukkarinen

@rolle@mementomori.social 2 wk. ago

@diondiondion Thanks for the details. In my opinion, it currently feels like something is missing on wide screens. I'd say search and trends at the very least, and follow suggestions would fit nicely there too We are used to seeing a "3-column layout" on social media, so having nothing there feels off.

Rolle Laukkarinen

@rolle@mementomori.social 2 wk. ago

Rolle Laukkarinen

@rolle@mementomori.social 2 wk. ago

@diondiondion Out of curiosity - and because I haven't been following the roadmap and discussions too closely, is something planned for it? Like trending, follow suggestions, and stuff like that?

Cadu :faz_o_L:

@cadusilva@bolha.one 2 wk. ago

@rolle in the advanced interface there's no this in place of the previous menu and trending hashtags (now gone, so far).

Mastodon's advanced interface showing only the far-right column where previously there was a menu (now in the far left of the interface) and the trending hashtags (now gone). Currently, it only shows "posts and other pages will open here" along with the instance mascot at the bottom.

Rolle Laukkarinen

@rolle@mementomori.social 2 wk. ago

@cadusilva Yeah, there are a lot of incomplete things. I won't upgrade to an incomplete version. I'm upgrading to the commit right before the DB migrations and the forced v5 update happened, and then I'll figure out a plan for the future.