Spec Status Tracker

A dated snapshot of ActivityPub standardization work. Every entry links to its source; check those for anything newer than the date at the top of the changelog.

:::info What to build against today The published Recommendations — ActivityPub (January 2018), Activity Streams 2.0 Core and Vocabulary (May 2017) — are still the normative versions. The ActivityPub Editor's Draft shows clarifications the Working Group has accepted but not yet published. Neither changes what Mastodon and other servers do on the wire today. :::

W3C Social Web Working Group

Charter	Social Web WG charter, 15 January 2026 – 31 January 2028
Chair	Darius Kazemi
Deliverables	ActivityPub, Activity Streams 2.0 Core, Activity Vocabulary — "Expected completion: Q3 2026" (not met, see below)
Meeting notes	w3c/socialwg/meetings/2026

"1.1" maintenance vs a future "2.0"

The WG is doing a backwards-compatible maintenance pass ("1.1"): errata, clarifications, examples. Changes that would break existing implementations are explicitly deferred to a later "2.0" — for example, on 2026-10-09 a better partial-update mechanism (deleting individual properties, patch formats such as FEP-a1d1) was called "Not 1.1 changes, more of a 2.0" (2026-10-09 notes).

No updated draft has been published to /TR yet. On 2026-10-02 the group discussed trying to "publish a draft by TPAC" (2026-10-02 notes).

Editor's Draft changes to watch

Change	Status	What it means for implementers
#621 Clarify delivery to additional inboxes for public activities	Merged 2026-10-09	The spec now explicitly allows a server to deliver public activities to inboxes beyond the addressed recipients — the pattern relays and discovery services rely on. Resolves issue #620.
#626 Shared inbox delivery: "all known" → "additional" shared inboxes	Merged 2026-10-09	Servers MAY deliver public posts to additional shared inboxes, rather than the old "all known" wording.
#637 Expand on using non-HTTP ids	Open, contested	Proposed by Ryan Barrett (Bridgy Fed) to allow ids such as DIDs. Mastodon and others pushed back; suggestions on 2026-10-02 included using url/alsoKnownAs for other identifiers in 1.1 and dropping the requirement that every identifier be dereferenceable (2026-10-02 notes). Keep id on HTTPS.

Other topics from the section-by-section read-through on 2026-10-09: more examples with non-ASCII preferredUsername, and how Tombstone, 404 and 410 should be used after a delete (2026-10-09 notes).

Server-to-service content delivery (Google explainer)

Google published an explainer in September 2026 proposing that servers deliver public-addressed content to admin-chosen ActivityPub service actors (search and discovery services), using existing activities. It explicitly leaves the management of those lists and any user controls out of scope. The discussion led to issue #620 and the merged PRs above.

SocialCG task forces

Status as reported at the 2026-10-02 joint CG/WG call unless noted.

Task force	Status	Links
ActivityPub API (C2S)	Initial draft of a Basic Profile for ActivityPub API Servers published 2026-05-19 (OAuth, HTTP practices such as CORS, rate limits and caching). It is a first draft and "doesn't represent consensus". The OAuth profile is FEP-d8c2 (DRAFT).	Announcement, Basic Profile
Data Portability (LOLA)	Draft "ready to finalize", but the group isn't meeting "since implementers aren't implementing". LOLA is a tentative deliverable in the WG charter.	LOLA CG draft
E2EE	"Heading toward CG draft"; working on threat modelling.	swicg/activitypub-e2ee
Handles / internationalized WebFinger	No lead; may hibernate until one is found. A support tracker for internationalized WebFinger handles exists.	i18n WebFinger tracker
Groups	Initial task-force report draft adopted 2026-05-28.	Announcement
HTTP Signatures	Nothing to report. The CG's HTTP Signatures report is the reference.	—
Trust & Safety	Looking for new leads.	—

CG leadership: Dmitri Zagidulin said on 2026-10-02 he is stepping down as co-chair; Johannes Ernst remains. See Social Web Community Group for how to take part.

Changelog

Newest first. Each entry is dated by when the change happened, with its source.

Date	Change
2026-10-26 – 30	TPAC 2026, Dublin. Breakout sessions were being proposed at the 2026-10-02 call.
2026-10-09	WG resolved to merge #621 and #626 (public delivery to additional inboxes).
2026-10-02	#637 (non-HTTP ids) discussed; no decision. Draft-by-TPAC floated.
2026-09	Google's server-to-service content delivery explainer published.
2026-08-26	FEP-7628 (Move Actor) finalized.
2026-06-02	WebSub republished as a W3C Recommendation — the first of the WG's maintained specs to get an updated version.
2026-05-28	Groups task force adopts initial report draft.
2026-05-19	C2S Basic Profile initial draft published.
2026-01-15	Social Web Working Group chartered.

For FEP statuses see FEPs; for the history of the groups see W3C Groups.