Bluesky has introduced a new setting that lets users stop their posts from appearing to non-followers in the platform’s main Discover feed. The feature is intended for people who want to post publicly for their existing followers without having those posts surfaced more broadly through Bluesky’s algorithmic recommendations.
The change does not make posts private. Bluesky posts remain public by default, and the company is still working on support for private data at the AT Protocol level.
Users Can Opt Out of Discover Recommendations
Bluesky announced the feature in an official post, saying not everyone wants their posts to reach a wider audience. Users can enable the option through the app’s Privacy and Security settings.
Once enabled, the setting prevents a user’s posts from being shown to non-followers through Discover. Bluesky says the change can take up to an hour to fully take effect.
The company already offers multiple ways for people to choose how content appears in their timelines, including custom feeds, moderation lists, and content filters.
Preference Travels Across AT Protocol Apps
The Discover opt-out is stored as an account-level preference rather than only as a setting inside the Bluesky app.
That means the preference can travel with a user when they access the same account through another application built on AT Protocol, Bluesky’s underlying open social networking standard.
Other AT Protocol apps can read the preference, but they are not required to honor it. Whether posts are excluded from similar recommendation feeds elsewhere will therefore depend on how each app implements the setting.
The update follows Bluesky’s addition of support for videos up to 10 minutes long earlier this week.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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