Mastodon has been gaining popularity ever since Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter. Shortly after the deal became official, Vivaldi became the first browser to create its own Mastodon "instance" called Vivaldi Social. Now, the browser has announced that it's integrating the platform into the sidebar of its desktop browser, giving users an easy way to view posts from the accounts they follow.
The Twitter alternative bears similarities to Musk's social network and gives users a way to make short posts. Unlike Twitter, which a single entity runs, Mastodon is a decentralized service that runs on an open-source protocol. Users can create and run their own servers or "instances" that other people can join, and Vivaldi Social is just one of them. Instances can communicate with one another, and people from different servers can still follow each other and see the other's posts.
With the browser's latest update, its users can now find Vivaldi Social in the sidebar, though they can also add any Mastodon instance they want. When they access an instance from the panel, it pops up and is displayed on the side to create a split-screen view.