You might have heard that Tumblr became part of Automattic awhile back. Well, tomorrow we’re moving a bunch of our stuff over to their place (it’s getting pretty serious!), so if you notice anything wonky, that might be why.

…A better way of saying this is that we’ve been conducting some maintenance recently to migrate Tumblr (aka our servers, and all the other hardware that runs Tumblr) over to Automattic’s data centers. Automattic even bought us a bunch of new servers of our very own.

We’re flipping the switch on the final stage of this migration at 3am EST tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 13th. We’ll update you once we’re finished.

You shouldn’t notice any disruptions during this migration, but there’s a small chance that things might act up during this short time period. If so, we’ll update our Help Center with additional info–and if you have questions or see something weird, please let us know.

Update (2:30am EST, Feb. 13): The migration is underway! Stay tuned.

Update (4:04pm EST, Feb. 20): We have now finished all of our residual migration tasks. Migration is complete. Onward and upward, Tumblr :)

Say hello to a smoother posting experience

Now when you tap the compose button (that little pencil) in the app to create a new post, you’ll be brought to a fresh blank canvas. The post flower that used to pop up has been removed from the app, leaving you with the simple blank canvas to do whatever you wish. All of your familiar post options are still there, and now they’re easier to access. They just have a new home at the bottom of your screen, waiting to be tapped whenever you need them.

What’s changing?

Not much! The toolbar is the same ol’ thing you’ve come to know and love. You can still create and arrange (and rearrange) photosets, add audio and video, make or add your own GIFs and Loops from the camera or video button, or search for existing GIFs on Tumblr with the GIF button. The biggest improvement? Your recently saved photos, GIFs, and videos from your camera roll are now shown in the mini media picker right below post canvas. This makes it even easier to add that stuff to a post. Just tap ‘em to add ‘em.

The space for a title didn’t go away—now it can be anywhere you want, and you can have as many titles as you want. Your whole post can be just titles if you wish. We don’t advise that at all, but it’s up to you. Just tap into the text you want to turn into the title, then tap the Aa text button to cycle through the text styles. You can also long-press the Aa button to bring up a neat little menu of those same text styles—but hey, you knew that already.

Quick question: why?

This makes posting on Tumblr a smoother experience. And, well, since mid-2018, the post flower actually hasn’t had much to do with how your posts are categorized in your archives or what forms of media you can add to your post. A post with a video in it will be categorized as a video in your archives, no matter what other type of media accompanies it. Posts with photos and no video will be categorized as photo posts. Posts with audio and no photo and video will be—you guessed it—sorted as an audio post. Removing the post flower is simply removing a barrier between you and your post canvas.

Anything else?

Nah, that’s it. Happy posting, folks!

@staff quick and legitimate questions here:

Really hope you guys answer this, I love seeing dev team trying to improve their product and being nice to users

Oh, hello. We love quick and legitimate questions (though we will also accept slow and illegitimate questions, because beggars can’t be choosers). Here we go:

Thanks for the questions and feedback! Always feel free to drop us a line, too.

Toggle it on in the top right corner of the “Likes” page.

SSL security, which has been available on the dashboard for a while, is now here for blogs. To turn it on, go to your blog settings and enable “Always serve blog over SSL.” Mmmmm, security. Check out our help docs for more info.

An update on this:

Update to the update: Now SSL is available for blogs with custom domains, too. To turn it on, go to your blog settings and enable “Always serve blog over SSL.” Once you’ve done that, it takes a while (typically less than a day) for the SSL on custom domains to activate. We’ll send you an email when it’s ready.

Yet another update: SSL is now being turned on by default for ALL Tumblrs that use our Official theme on the web. Even though we don’t recommend it, you can still turn it off in your blog settings.

Hey, guess what? 

Now you can change your username from the app. Good for all your identity-crisis-on-the-go needs.

(art with permission from @adamosgood)

Tag filtering is here Don’t see what you don’t wanna see

In our ongoing effort to help you all determine your own experience here on Tumblr, we’re launching one of our most requested features: the ability to filter out posts from your dashboard based on their tags.

Trying to avoid #Star Wars spoilers? Filter them out. Need a break from all the #holiday excitement this month? Sheesh, fine. Filter it out. It’s your dashboard. Groom it well.

Where do I set up a tag filter?

In your settings! You’ll find it in your general settings on mobile, under “Filtering.” On the web, you’ll find it in your account settings, also under “Filtering.”

That makes sense. Will I know when stuff is being filtered out?

Yup. Just like with Safe Mode, you’ll see a placeholder in your dashboard wherever something is being hidden. If you actually do want to see it, you can click/tap on it, and it’ll appear.

I follow some real nimrods. How can I stop seeing their posts?

Unfollow them! And if they’re really being a jerk, block them. And if they’re truly being hateful, report them.

Anything else I should know?

Sure. There are lots of other tools for making Tumblr the Tumblr you want to see. You can read about them all in our help center.

<3 Tumblr

One thing to note: As its name implies, tag filtering relies on a post’s tags to tell it what's what. It can't filter based on the full text used in a post, or sense subtle references or sarcasm. So be a good neighbor and tag accurately and often. 🏷

Here it is: Best stuff first

Extremely handy if you follow a lot of people and hate missing anything good. 

Best Stuff First moves the best stuff on your dashboard—mhm!—right up to the top. 

It’s rolling out this week on iOS and Android, and comes with this Help Center article.  

Thanks! ✌️

SSL security, which has been available on the dashboard for a while, is now here for blogs. To turn it on, go to your blog settings and enable “Always serve blog over SSL.” Mmmmm, security. Check out our help docs for more info.

An update on this:

Update to the update: Now SSL is available for blogs with custom domains, too. To turn it on, go to your blog settings and enable “Always serve blog over SSL.” Once you’ve done that, it takes a while (typically less than a day) for the SSL on custom domains to activate. We’ll send you an email when it’s ready.

Check out the update above for blogs with custom domains, and follow our friends @security too!

Announcing…

Three new features for posting from the mobile app

First, you can add images to reblogs. You asked for it, you got it.

Second, new text styles for your new text posts. Headers, lists, serifs, fancy cursive, serious typewriter. Look:

Lastly, intriguingly, you can drag paragraphs and images around to reorder them. Witness it:

Have fun with all this, Tumblr 😘

Want to take a deeper dive into the new text poster? Hit up our help center for everything you need to know.

A swifter way to block New to the iOS and Android apps

If anyone is sending you unwanted messages, @mentioning you when you don’t want to be mentioned, or following you when you don’t want to be followed, you can block them when you get the notification, without even opening the app.

There, now you are rid of this person forever.

Hey, what’s this green dot in my messages? 👆

That dot lets you know when someone’s been on Tumblr recently. Send them a message, why don’t ya? 💚

Take note: You can hide your own activity status by adjusting your privacy settings (under “Availability” on web), if you want to.