Bluesky Currently Has Trending Themes (but You Can Turn Them Off)
As a holiday treat, Bluesky is finally adding trending themes to its website and app, although they’re currently in beta. This feature is a classic from Twitter (now X) and has been in Threads for about nine months now, so it’s a no-brainer for any new social media site trying to catch up. However, Bluesky’s implementation is a bit clever: it allows you to disable this feature entirely and takes disabled keywords into account.
How to disable popular themes in Bluesky
Bluesky’s trending topics feed is currently in testing, so you may not see it right away (I didn’t). To check if you have it, click the search button on the Bluesky website or app. If this feature is already implemented, you will see popular posts below the text field. They are not listed in any order or priority, so expect a loose collection of popular keywords rather than an organized list.
Personally, I’m not a big fan of trending topics, as they push me into conversations I’d rather avoid, and it’s always unclear how genuine they are – whether there’s actually news worth discussing, or whether the algorithm is just telling me to help pump up posts on a certain topic. a topic that I think I like?
Luckily, for people like me, you can disable Bluesky’s popular themes feature altogether. Turning it off is as simple as clicking the X button next to the Trending list, but for more granular control, head to Bluesky’s Content and Media Settings page ( Settings > Content and Media ) to access the Trending Themes switcher.
It’s not entirely clear whether Bluesky’s popular themes are as personalized (as in, gimmicky) as those on X, but we do know that they aren’t filtered by region, at least not yet. According to Bluesky , this feature is currently only available in English. It’s important to note that disabled keywords are also hidden from the trending topics list. This way, you won’t have to see posts about politics or other topics you might want to avoid.
Other ways to see popular posts on Bluesky
The new feature will undoubtedly be useful to some, but it’s not the only way to find trending topics on Bluesky. To view custom options, go to the Bluesky Feeds page and look for “trending.” This will show other channels that follow popular posts on the social network, such as Trending News , Blacksky: Trending and Trending Links . You can add these channels to your profile and even set them as default if you want.
If that doesn’t help, try using Sill , which allows you to view only links shared by people you follow . Sill lets you see the most popular posts first, and if you follow a lot of popular accounts , you can use the service to keep up with Bluesky’s hottest topics.