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Flipboard launches Surf, a new app for open social web
03 Apr 2026

Flipboard has officially launched its new social app and feed reader, Surf.

The innovative platform serves as a client for fediverse apps like Bluesky and Mastodon, a feed reader to subscribe to almost any website, podcast, or YouTube channel, and a tool for creating and following feeds of interesting content.

After more than a year in beta testing, Surf is now available on the web with mobile apps also in beta.

Sign up using Bluesky or Mastodon account
User interface

Surf offers a unique browsing experience for the fediverse or open social web.

You can sign up using your Mastodon or Bluesky account, or both to create a Surf account.

The platform allows you to search for and curate content from billions of posts across ActivityPub (Mastodon's open protocol), AT Protocol (Bluesky's open protocol), and the web.

This means you can follow feeds curated by others or create and share your own.

How Surf's interaction model works
Engagement

Surf's interaction model is quite different from traditional social media platforms.

When you like a post on Surf, you're actually liking that content from your social account. Similarly, commenting on a post means you're replying to it with your own post.

This federated structure lets users interact with their favorite content across multiple platforms without having to manage separate accounts for each one.

Surf offers video-first feeds with large previews
Content display

Unlike other social apps that present user-generated content as a dense Twitter-style timeline, Surf takes a different approach.

It shows video-first feeds with large previews and in-line players, turns podcast files into something like a podcast player, and displays links in a Flipboard-style magazine.

You can even sort feeds by content type for more targeted browsing experiences.