Bluesky launches feeds with custom algorithms

One of Bluesky’s potentially biggest features is right here: custom algorithms, or what it calls “custom fonts.” The idea is that you can subscribe to feeds that have algorithms tuned to display different types of posts than you might see in Bluesky’s main “What’s Hot” feed.

In practice, custom feeds work much like Twitter lists. Similar to those, you can pin specific custom feeds, and they’ll appear at the top of your timeline as different tabs to choose from. You can choose which fonts to pin from a new “My Fonts” menu in the app’s sidebar. By default, that tab has feeds for “What’s Hot” (“Top Trending Content from across the Network”), “What’s Hot Classic” (“The Original What’s Hot Experience”), “Bluesky Team” (“Posts from members of the Bluesky Team”) and “Popular With Friends” (“A mix of popular content from the accounts you follow and content your followers like”).

My Feeds also has a section for discovering new feeds. There are plenty of options already, including tame feeds, like “Cat Pics” and “Music,” but also feeds that cater to Bluesky’s weirder side, like “Hellthread Feed” and “What’s Alf.” Best of all, you don’t actually have to pin any sources, which means you can set things up so you only see a reverse chronological timeline of posts from the people you follow if you want.

So far, I really like the implementation of these custom feeds. It’s nice to feel like I have some control over what’s algorithmically delivered to me, especially in a world where Elon Musk’s posts can take over Twitter and the TikTok feed is extremely good at keeping me stuck in the app. And I wouldn’t be surprised if I often limit myself to just feeding the people I follow—I have enough distractions in my life already.

“We want a future where you control what you see on social media,” Bluesky CEO Jay Graber wrote in a March blog post about the platform’s vision for algorithmic choice. “Our goal is to replace the conventional ‘master algorithm,’ controlled by a single company, with an open and diverse ‘algorithm marketplace.’”

Custom feeds are now available in the latest version of Bluesky’s mobile apps and web client, bsky.app. The Twitter alternative is still invite-only, though, so the only way you can test this for yourself is if you already have an account, or if someone sends you an invite code. (I don’t have spare parts, sorry!)