Automattic has paused its plans to migrate Tumblr’s backend to WordPress, according to CEO Matt Mullenweg in a new episode of Decoder.
The move, initially announced last year, aimed to unify platforms and simplify development, but is now “on hold” as the company shifts focus to features users are actively requesting.
“I still want to do it — it’s just cleaner,” Mullenweg said. “But right now, we’re not working on it.” While the migration could resume in the future, current efforts are directed toward user-visible improvements rather than backend changes.
The delay also affects Tumblr’s potential integration with the fediverse. Had Tumblr moved to WordPress, it could have leveraged the ActivityPub plugin already used by WordPress.com, allowing Tumblr posts to appear in federated networks like Mastodon. “That would’ve been a free way to get it,” Mullenweg noted.
Automattic acquired Tumblr from Verizon in 2019, and while backend unification is off the table for now, Mullenweg says that a fediverse connection could still be implemented natively within Tumblr’s existing infrastructure if demand grows.
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