Social networking startup and decentralized X competitor Bluesky is rolling out new features aimed at creating a less toxic platform and promoting more constructive conversations than its predecessor. The company unveiled several anti-abuse features, such as the ability to hide replies, similar to what X offers, and a feature to detach the original post from someone's quoted post to reduce the potential for hate and dunking on others.
The detach quote feature in the latest release (version 1.90) allows users to view and remove their original post from someone's quote post, helping to combat dog-piling and harassment. Meta's Threads, another X competitor, also provides tools for users to control who can reply to or quote their posts.
Bluesky plans to rely on labeling services for correcting misinformation, rather than allowing quote posts for this purpose. The company is also empowering developers and communities to create their own moderation tools, with grants offered to support this effort.
Bluesky also aims to incorporate a Community Notes-like feature in the future, similar to what X offers for crowd-sourced fact-checking. Other new features include the ability to hide replies on posts and enable priority notifications to only receive notifications from people you follow.
The company will continue to expand notification options and is changing how replies show up in users' timelines to prioritize high-quality content. While this change may impact engagement metrics, Bluesky is open to user feedback and may adjust its approach based on the response from the community.
