Bluesky to Add Follower-Only Reply Settings

Trending Topics is a new feature on the burgeoning social media network Bluesky. It facilitates the discovery of trending postings and subjects, which may improve Bluesky’s standing as a breaking news source.

Users of the social media platform Bluesky will soon have more control over who may respond to their postings i.e. be able to restrict who may reply to their posts by using Bluesky’s ‘Followers Only’ reply setting. Bluesky will include a new “followers only” feature that users may select to restrict answers, according to Bluesky creator Paul Frazee. He adds that Bluesky will develop a feature that will allow users to customize their default reply settings. This implies that you may, for example, restrict your responses to followers exclusively at all times.

The goal of this latest upgrade is to give users more control and lessen problems like context collapse that occur when postings get popular. In order to accommodate these functionalities, Bluesky creator Paul Frazee also stated intentions to update the underlying AT Protocol and define default reply settings for users.

All Bluesky customers worldwide may use the functionality in beta on desktop and mobile apps, which was introduced on Christmas Day. Press the search icon in the web interface’s sidebar or at the bottom of the application to access it. By doing this, a list of suggested and trending topics will appear beneath the search field. Any topic will result in additional posts that are comparable. For the functionality to appear, you might need to upgrade the iPhone or Android app.

With these modifications, the app will stand out even more from its main rivals, Meta‘s Threads and Elon Musk’s X.

Meanwhile, on Threads, users may decide between “Anyone,” “Profiles you follow,” and “Mentioned only.”

Bluesky so far has adopted a similar set of options as its rivals, enabling users to limit answers to their posts to “Everybody,” “Nobody,” “Mentioned Users,” and “Followed Users.” (Moreover, you may use any lists you’ve made in conjunction with the last two choices.)

Offering a “followers only” reply option is a novel approach that, according to Frazee, may lessen “context collapse” and make “going viral less intense.” This is what happens when a post goes viral and reaches a lot more people than it was intended for, which might lead to confusion or misunderstandings.

The developer points out that the modification won’t affect who can see a message; it will simply restrict who may reply to it.

The statement states, “This is v1 and we will be iterating with your feedback.” If the functionality isn’t working for you, you may uncheck “Enable trending topics” in Bluesky Settings > material and Media to stop viral material from showing up in search results. According to the corporation, during the trial phase, hot topics would only be available in English. After Bluesky makes Trending Topics available to all of its customers, support for more languages will be introduced. 

Bluesky users have long advocated for a “followers only” reply option. In December 2023, Frazee himself was talking to a user about a followers option.

In the future, Bluesky’s underlying AT Protocol will also be updated to include the capability.

The benefit of Trending Topics is that it remembers all of the unpleasant terms and undesirable expressions you have muted in Bluesky’s settings. Stated differently, such restrictions will also be applied to trending postings, preventing muted terms from showing up in Trending Topics.

Since its competitors have had a comparable function for a while, Bluesky is lagging behind. For instance, trending topics have been available on Twitter/X since 2017, while Meta-owned Threads introduced trending topics in March 2024. Additionally, some Bluesky third-party clients, like Greysky, already have their own take on popular subjects.

Bluesky has been churning away for a while. The social networking platform had a significant increase in popularity among former Twitter users after the US elections, while lacking a few features that were popular on other social media applications, such as post editing, bookmarking, and verification badges.

Although Bluesky’s user base is small compared to Threads and X, its users adore the site because it remains a safe space for unfettered idea sharing without abuse or bots.