diff --git a/lib/activity.php b/lib/activity.php
index 6fd04c4db1..2d3930df0d 100644
--- a/lib/activity.php
+++ b/lib/activity.php
@@ -627,6 +627,14 @@ class Activity
             if (!empty($this->context->conversation)) {
                 $xs->element('link', array('rel' => ActivityContext::CONVERSATION,
                                            'href' => $this->context->conversation));
+                $xs->element(ActivityContext::CONVERSATION, null, $this->context->conversation);
+                /* Since we use XMLWriter we just use the previously hardcoded prefix for ostatus,
+                    otherwise we should use something like this:
+                $xs->elementNS(array(ActivityContext::OSTATUS => 'ostatus'),    // namespace
+                                'conversation',  // tag (or the element name from ActivityContext::CONVERSATION)
+                                null,   // attributes
+                                $this->context->conversation);  // content
+                */
             }
 
             foreach ($this->context->attention as $attnURI=>$type) {
diff --git a/lib/activitycontext.php b/lib/activitycontext.php
index cebd72ea90..32f15c1e9f 100644
--- a/lib/activitycontext.php
+++ b/lib/activitycontext.php
@@ -48,12 +48,14 @@ class ActivityContext
     const INREPLYTO  = 'in-reply-to';
     const REF        = 'ref';
     const HREF       = 'href';
+
+    // OStatus element names with prefixes
     const OBJECTTYPE = 'ostatus:object-type';   // FIXME: Undocumented!
+    const CONVERSATION = 'ostatus:conversation';
 
     const POINT     = 'point';
 
     const MENTIONED    = 'mentioned';
-    const CONVERSATION = 'ostatus:conversation';
 
     const ATTN_PUBLIC  = 'http://activityschema.org/collection/public';
 
@@ -72,7 +74,14 @@ class ActivityContext
 
         $this->location = $this->getLocation($element);
 
-        $this->conversation = ActivityUtils::getLink($element, self::CONVERSATION);
+        $convs = $element->getElementsByTagNameNS(self::OSTATUS, self::CONVERSATION);
+        foreach ($convs as $conv) {
+            $this->conversation = $conv->textContent;
+        }
+        if (empty($this->conversation)) {
+            // fallback to the atom:link rel="ostatus:conversation" element
+            $this->conversation = ActivityUtils::getLink($element, self::CONVERSATION);
+        }
 
         // Multiple attention links allowed