diff --git a/app/javascript/mastodon/utils/__tests__/__snapshots__/html-test.ts.snap b/app/javascript/mastodon/utils/__tests__/__snapshots__/html-test.ts.snap
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a579efa406
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/javascript/mastodon/utils/__tests__/__snapshots__/html-test.ts.snap
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+// Vitest Snapshot v1, https://vitest.dev/guide/snapshot.html
+
+exports[`html > htmlStringToComponents > copies attributes to props 1`] = `
+[
+  <a
+    href="https://example.com"
+    rel="nofollow"
+    target="_blank"
+  >
+    link
+  </a>,
+]
+`;
+
+exports[`html > htmlStringToComponents > handles nested elements 1`] = `
+[
+  <p>
+    lorem 
+    <strong>
+      ipsum
+    </strong>
+  </p>,
+]
+`;
+
+exports[`html > htmlStringToComponents > ignores empty text nodes 1`] = `
+[
+  <p>
+    <span>
+      lorem     ipsum
+    </span>
+  </p>,
+]
+`;
+
+exports[`html > htmlStringToComponents > respects allowedTags option 1`] = `
+[
+  <p>
+    lorem 
+    <em>
+      dolor
+    </em>
+  </p>,
+]
+`;
+
+exports[`html > htmlStringToComponents > respects maxDepth option 1`] = `
+[
+  <p>
+    <span />
+  </p>,
+]
+`;
+
+exports[`html > htmlStringToComponents > returns converted nodes from string 1`] = `
+[
+  <p>
+    lorem ipsum
+  </p>,
+]
+`;
+
+exports[`html > htmlStringToComponents > uses default parsing if onElement returns undefined 1`] = `
+[
+  <p>
+    lorem ipsum
+  </p>,
+]
+`;
diff --git a/app/javascript/mastodon/utils/__tests__/html-test.ts b/app/javascript/mastodon/utils/__tests__/html-test.ts
index 99bfdcb801..6c08cc7cbf 100644
--- a/app/javascript/mastodon/utils/__tests__/html-test.ts
+++ b/app/javascript/mastodon/utils/__tests__/html-test.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import React from 'react';
+
 import * as html from '../html';
 
 describe('html', () => {
@@ -9,4 +11,104 @@ describe('html', () => {
       expect(output).toEqual('lorem\n\nipsum\n<br>');
     });
   });
+
+  describe('htmlStringToComponents', () => {
+    it('returns converted nodes from string', () => {
+      const input = '<p>lorem ipsum</p>';
+      const output = html.htmlStringToComponents(input);
+      expect(output).toMatchSnapshot();
+    });
+
+    it('handles nested elements', () => {
+      const input = '<p>lorem <strong>ipsum</strong></p>';
+      const output = html.htmlStringToComponents(input);
+      expect(output).toMatchSnapshot();
+    });
+
+    it('ignores empty text nodes', () => {
+      const input = '<p>   <span>lorem     ipsum</span>   </p>';
+      const output = html.htmlStringToComponents(input);
+      expect(output).toMatchSnapshot();
+    });
+
+    it('copies attributes to props', () => {
+      const input =
+        '<a href="https://example.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">link</a>';
+      const output = html.htmlStringToComponents(input);
+      expect(output).toMatchSnapshot();
+    });
+
+    it('respects maxDepth option', () => {
+      const input = '<p><span>lorem <strong>ipsum</strong></span></p>';
+      const output = html.htmlStringToComponents(input, { maxDepth: 2 });
+      expect(output).toMatchSnapshot();
+    });
+
+    it('calls onText callback', () => {
+      const input = '<p>lorem ipsum</p>';
+      const onText = vi.fn((text: string) => text);
+      html.htmlStringToComponents(input, { onText });
+      expect(onText).toHaveBeenCalledExactlyOnceWith('lorem ipsum');
+    });
+
+    it('calls onElement callback', () => {
+      const input = '<p>lorem ipsum</p>';
+      const onElement = vi.fn(
+        (element: HTMLElement, children: React.ReactNode[]) =>
+          React.createElement(element.tagName.toLowerCase(), {}, ...children),
+      );
+      html.htmlStringToComponents(input, { onElement });
+      expect(onElement).toHaveBeenCalledExactlyOnceWith(
+        expect.objectContaining({ tagName: 'P' }),
+        expect.arrayContaining(['lorem ipsum']),
+      );
+    });
+
+    it('uses default parsing if onElement returns undefined', () => {
+      const input = '<p>lorem ipsum</p>';
+      const onElement = vi.fn(() => undefined);
+      const output = html.htmlStringToComponents(input, { onElement });
+      expect(onElement).toHaveBeenCalledExactlyOnceWith(
+        expect.objectContaining({ tagName: 'P' }),
+        expect.arrayContaining(['lorem ipsum']),
+      );
+      expect(output).toMatchSnapshot();
+    });
+
+    it('calls onAttribute callback', () => {
+      const input =
+        '<a href="https://example.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">link</a>';
+      const onAttribute = vi.fn(
+        (name: string, value: string) =>
+          [name, value] satisfies [string, string],
+      );
+      html.htmlStringToComponents(input, { onAttribute });
+      expect(onAttribute).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(3);
+      expect(onAttribute).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+        'href',
+        'https://example.com',
+        'a',
+      );
+      expect(onAttribute).toHaveBeenCalledWith('target', '_blank', 'a');
+      expect(onAttribute).toHaveBeenCalledWith('rel', 'nofollow', 'a');
+    });
+
+    it('respects allowedTags option', () => {
+      const input = '<p>lorem <strong>ipsum</strong> <em>dolor</em></p>';
+      const output = html.htmlStringToComponents(input, {
+        allowedTags: new Set(['p', 'em']),
+      });
+      expect(output).toMatchSnapshot();
+    });
+
+    it('ensure performance is acceptable with large input', () => {
+      const input = '<p>' + '<span>lorem</span>'.repeat(1_000) + '</p>';
+      const start = performance.now();
+      html.htmlStringToComponents(input);
+      const duration = performance.now() - start;
+      // Arbitrary threshold of 200ms for this test.
+      // Normally it's much less (<50ms), but the GH Action environment can be slow.
+      expect(duration).toBeLessThan(200);
+    });
+  });
 });
diff --git a/app/javascript/mastodon/utils/html.ts b/app/javascript/mastodon/utils/html.ts
index 0145a04551..1686322300 100644
--- a/app/javascript/mastodon/utils/html.ts
+++ b/app/javascript/mastodon/utils/html.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import React from 'react';
+
 // NB: This function can still return unsafe HTML
 export const unescapeHTML = (html: string) => {
   const wrapper = document.createElement('div');
@@ -7,3 +9,177 @@ export const unescapeHTML = (html: string) => {
     .replace(/<[^>]*>/g, '');
   return wrapper.textContent;
 };
+
+interface QueueItem {
+  node: Node;
+  parent: React.ReactNode[];
+  depth: number;
+}
+
+interface Options {
+  maxDepth?: number;
+  onText?: (text: string) => React.ReactNode;
+  onElement?: (
+    element: HTMLElement,
+    children: React.ReactNode[],
+  ) => React.ReactNode;
+  onAttribute?: (
+    name: string,
+    value: string,
+    tagName: string,
+  ) => [string, unknown] | null;
+  allowedTags?: Set<string>;
+}
+const DEFAULT_ALLOWED_TAGS: ReadonlySet<string> = new Set([
+  'a',
+  'abbr',
+  'b',
+  'blockquote',
+  'br',
+  'cite',
+  'code',
+  'del',
+  'dfn',
+  'dl',
+  'dt',
+  'em',
+  'h1',
+  'h2',
+  'h3',
+  'h4',
+  'h5',
+  'h6',
+  'hr',
+  'i',
+  'li',
+  'ol',
+  'p',
+  'pre',
+  'small',
+  'span',
+  'strong',
+  'sub',
+  'sup',
+  'time',
+  'u',
+  'ul',
+]);
+
+export function htmlStringToComponents(
+  htmlString: string,
+  options: Options = {},
+) {
+  const wrapper = document.createElement('template');
+  wrapper.innerHTML = htmlString;
+
+  const rootChildren: React.ReactNode[] = [];
+  const queue: QueueItem[] = [
+    { node: wrapper.content, parent: rootChildren, depth: 0 },
+  ];
+
+  const {
+    maxDepth = 10,
+    allowedTags = DEFAULT_ALLOWED_TAGS,
+    onAttribute,
+    onElement,
+    onText,
+  } = options;
+
+  while (queue.length > 0) {
+    const item = queue.shift();
+    if (!item) {
+      break;
+    }
+
+    const { node, parent, depth } = item;
+    // If maxDepth is exceeded, skip processing this node.
+    if (depth > maxDepth) {
+      continue;
+    }
+
+    switch (node.nodeType) {
+      // Just process children for fragments.
+      case Node.DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE: {
+        for (const child of node.childNodes) {
+          queue.push({ node: child, parent, depth: depth + 1 });
+        }
+        break;
+      }
+
+      // Text can be added directly if it has any non-whitespace content.
+      case Node.TEXT_NODE: {
+        const text = node.textContent;
+        if (text && text.trim() !== '') {
+          if (onText) {
+            parent.push(onText(text));
+          } else {
+            parent.push(text);
+          }
+        }
+        break;
+      }
+
+      // Process elements with attributes and then their children.
+      case Node.ELEMENT_NODE: {
+        if (!(node instanceof HTMLElement)) {
+          console.warn('Expected HTMLElement, got', node);
+          continue;
+        }
+
+        // If the tag is not allowed, skip it and its children.
+        if (!allowedTags.has(node.tagName.toLowerCase())) {
+          continue;
+        }
+
+        // Create the element and add it to the parent.
+        const children: React.ReactNode[] = [];
+        let element: React.ReactNode = undefined;
+
+        // If onElement is provided, use it to create the element.
+        if (onElement) {
+          const component = onElement(node, children);
+          // Check for undefined to allow returning null.
+          if (component !== undefined) {
+            element = component;
+          }
+        }
+
+        // If the element wasn't created, use the default conversion.
+        if (element === undefined) {
+          const props: Record<string, unknown> = {};
+          for (const attr of node.attributes) {
+            if (onAttribute) {
+              const result = onAttribute(
+                attr.name,
+                attr.value,
+                node.tagName.toLowerCase(),
+              );
+              if (result) {
+                const [name, value] = result;
+                props[name] = value;
+              }
+            } else {
+              props[attr.name] = attr.value;
+            }
+          }
+          element = React.createElement(
+            node.tagName.toLowerCase(),
+            props,
+            children,
+          );
+        }
+
+        // Push the element to the parent.
+        parent.push(element);
+
+        // Iterate over the node children with the newly created component.
+        for (const child of node.childNodes) {
+          queue.push({ node: child, parent: children, depth: depth + 1 });
+        }
+        break;
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  return rootChildren;
+}