Bluesky, the new social media platform designed to encourage authentic and meaningful connections, is celebrating a new milestone—reaching 40 million users. To that end, Bluesky wants to improve personalization and user engagement. They’ve beta tested a new feature which allows users to indicate posts they don’t like. Specifically, to improve the content displayed in personalized discovery feed Discover and other places across the platform.
The platform has since gained national acclaim for its unique engagement model and groundbreaking approach to community dialogue. Perhaps the best feature of all is that users can now detach quote posts. This ends up making it harder to get unwanted attention focused on their content. This latest action follows a wave of criticism around moderation decisions that have impacted the platform in the past. By empowering users with increased control, Bluesky is taking steps to foster an ecosystem where “fun, genuine, and respectful exchanges” can thrive.
Beyond the dislike feature, Bluesky offers a useful suite of tools that let users tailor their experience. The reply settings feature provides users the tools to choose who can reply to their tweets, giving users more autonomy over their experience. This helps us keep discussions focused and on-topic. Additionally, Bluesky offers moderation lists, which allow users to mass-block communities of people they would rather not communicate with.
It is an extensive platform with equally powerful content filter controls. Plus, check out how you can mute words to control your social media feed. Users can even subscribe to external moderation service providers through the platform for additional assistance in managing their interactions.
Despite its growth, Bluesky has encountered challenges. Users have long complained that their feeds were a mess, with unrelated conversations popping up out of nowhere. “It’s often impossible to figure out who is replying to whom and where and why you’re seeing certain posts. They appear from nowhere and lead to nowhere,” noted Max Read, highlighting a common frustration among users.
Bluesky’s recent changes completely mirror these same changes over on X, formerly known as Twitter. The politics of the platform are changing with it as well. This prioritizes less content collapse and fewer repetitive reply chains to promote more useful conversations. Similarly, Bluesky has publicly expressed its commitment to user safety. Together with the rollout of these improvements, we are ushering in a more intuitive, engaging, and user-friendly online environment.