Bluesky has rolled out an “algorithmic opt-out” that stops a user’s public posts from being shown in the app’s Discover feed main Discover feed.
The X challenger says it's as a response to users who “do not want to go viral,” offering a way to post for an existing audience rather than for the wider network.
This is not a privacy switch
Posts on Bluesky remain public by default; the opt-out only reduces algorithmic amplification rather than restricting who can see a post. To enable it, users toggle a new option in the app’s Privacy and Security settings, and Bluesky says the preference can take up to an hour to take effect.
The preference is stored at the account level, so it travels with the user across apps that use the same underlying protocol, AT Proto. That means third-party clients can see the flag, but they are not forced to honour it; apps powered by the protocol “still have to choose whether to respect it” still have to choose.
Brisk pace
The opt-out arrived as Bluesky’s product pace remains brisk, the company had added support for longer videos the day before support for longer videos. The change is small but practical: it gives users a local control over discoverability while the platform and the wider AT Protocol ecosystem work out how to balance openness, moderation and user preferences.
For people who post primarily to followers, the setting narrows the risk of unintended amplification. The sharper question for the AT Protocol era is whether the choice will be effective beyond Bluesky’s own app, and whether third-party clients will consistently honour an account-level opt-out.
