AIBRIEF
This is not a privacy control, the opt out just throttles algorithmic reach, and because the preference lives at the account level, the user's choice can travel to any other Bluesky compatible app.
Bluesky rolled out a new setting on Thursday that limits how its algorithmic Discover feed surfaces a user's public posts to people outside their follower network. The feature is not a privacy control: posts on Bluesky are public by default, and the opt-out does not hide them from anyone who already follows the account or visits a profile directly. Private data at the protocol level is a separate, in-progress workstream, the company told TechCrunch.
Because the opt-out is stored on AT Proto at the account level, the user's choice can travel to any other app built on the same protocol. AT Proto is the open social protocol that powers Bluesky and a growing set of third-party clients, so a preference recorded at the account level is in principle readable by any of them. Those apps still have to choose to honor the signal, and there is no list of compatible apps in the source material or any indication yet of how widely the preference will be respected outside Bluesky's own client.
The toggle lives in the app's Privacy and Security settings, and Bluesky says the change can take up to an hour to fully take effect.