So like, how do I browse other instances or is that even a thing I can do without making an account on there
@lizardsquid does basically every toot made on every instance (saved for blocked ones) show up in the federated feed or is there a thing I have to do to browse toots on them
maple classic™ 
@synthgal @lizardsquid every public toot from every account our instance knows about appears in the public timeline save for silenced and suspended instances and users
@synthgal looking at other instances' local timelines isn't a feature implemented on the mastodon app but you can do it with this tool http://www.unmung.com/mastoview?url=computerfairi.es&view=local
as for simply interacting with people in other instances, you can just use the public timeline (globe icon) or, if you found the toot outside our instance, paste the full url to the toot in the search box and click it to be able to reply to it
@synthgal what do you mean?