Open social network Bluesky has introduced a new algorithmic opt-out feature that allows users to reduce the visibility of their public posts in the main Discover feed.

This change is aimed at giving users more control over how their content is displayed, especially for those who don't want to go viral. Instead, they can choose to make their posts less discoverable to people outside their existing personal network. For related coverage, explore our detailed analysis on Technology and Digital Systems.

How It Works

To opt out of the Discover feed, users need to toggle on a new option in the app's Privacy and Security settings. The change can take up to an hour to fully take effect.

The company says it created this feature because not everyone wants to be exposed to their posts Sometimes, people just want to share with their followers without having their words spread far and wide.

The new opt-out preference is recorded at the account level, meaning it travels with the user even if they post from another app that has access to this information. However, other apps still have to choose whether to respect this choice.

Extended Reach Beyond Apps

This move marks an important step towards giving users more control over their online presence and content visibility.

Read More: When agents: act on their own, governance has to live in the data layer

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After adding support for longer videos just yesterday, open social network Bluesky on Thursday introduced a new algorithmic opt-out feature that allows users to suspend their posts from appearing in the app’s main Discover feed.

That algorithmic feed can currently surface any post on Bluesky’s network, as posts on the network are public To be clear, this latest change isn’t a way to make posts private — Bluesky is still working on rolling out support for private data at the protocol level. Instead, the feature simply makes a user’s public posts less discoverable to people outside their existing personal network.