You can now organize your feed by “Hotness” on Bluesky

Bluesky now lets users rank the posts in their feed by so-called “hotness,” although the new feature has led to complaints from many users of its X competitor.

Ranking by Hotness allows users to prioritize posts that have been liked recently in their feed. The app version 1.95, now available for iOS and Android users, also promises users numerous other improvements such as “improved localizations” and “smoother feed scrolling.” However, Bluesky did not elaborate on what this might mean in practice.

In a series of comments on the announcement, some users claimed that the new “Hotness” option had become the default in their news feeds – and were unhappy with it.

“Don’t make this the default,” one user said. “This encourages toxic behavior and commitment baiting.”

Another user claimed the update could “tempt people to start baiting again.” In engagement baiting, people sometimes intentionally post controversial content to generate likes, shares, and clicks.

Meanwhile, another user asked if Bluesky is “starting to copy what caused Twitter to start failing?”

If you don’t want to organize your feed by “Hotness,” Bluesky gives users the option to change the new default setting. You’ll need to go to the Settings tab, followed by Content & Media and finally Thread Settings, where you can then choose an alternative way to sort your feed.

Regardless of what people think about the latest update, Bluesky is expanding its user base at lightning speed. Bluesky currently has nearly 24 million users, up from 20 million users last week and up from 12 million users just over a month ago.

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About Will McCurdy

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I’m a reporter who covers weekend news. Before joining PCMag in 2024, I read writing at BBC News, The Guardian, The Times of London, The Daily Beast, Vice, Slate, Fast Company, The Evening Standard, The i, TechRadar, and Decrypt Media.

I’ve been a PC gamer since you had to manually install games from multiple CD-ROMs. As a reporter, I am passionate about the intersection between technology and human lives. I’ve reported on everything from crypto scandals to the art world to conspiracy theories to British politics to Russia and foreign policy.

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