If you’ve been using the internet long enough, you can remember a day before the algorithms took over. Bluesky recaptures some of that magic and takes it to the next level with the stealthy Feeds feature that is much more than it sounds.

Bluesky is gaining more users with every change that comes to the social network formerly known as Twitter. Despite being one of the newest social media apps to drop invites less than a year ago, it almost feels like the old internet. Part of the reason is a classic chronological timeline, but Bluesky didn’t stop with one feed.

What is a “Feed” on Bluesky?

The first thing you see on Bluesky is a basic Follow feed. This is where you can see every post from accounts you follow in chronological order. Not many social media apps offer this anymore, but as cool as it is, especially if you’re a former Twitter user, it’s not the best thing about Bluesky feeds.

In the sidebar, you’ll notice a hashtag icon that will take you to a feed page. To begin with, Bluesky hooks you up with two feeds: the aforementioned Following feed and Discover. The Discover feed displays trending content from your personal network. Look a little further down the page and you will find a lot more flows.

The most popular non-standard feed is called Popular with Friends. It pulls in a mix of content from accounts you follow and accounts the people you follow like. Another feed called Mutualsit only shows posts from accounts that have followed you back. There is also an OnlyPosts feed that removes reposts and replies.

Most of these flows were made by the Bluesky team, and they are very utilitarian. But here’s another cool thing about feeds: any user can create a feed and share it with the Bluesky community. This means that there is a large catalog of highly random flows waiting to be added to your arsenal.

For example, there is a feed called Cat Pics that was made by a user called Jaz. It has over 7,000 likes. There are feeds about science, astronomy, books, birds, gardening, art and so much more. All of these flows are custom algorithms that Bluesky enables users to create with little coding knowledge. Just tap the plus icon to save a feed to the My Feeds list.

A modular social media app

Being able to follow custom feeds is already pretty neat, but it gets better. You can completely customize how you use Bluesky by moving flows around like building blocks. This makes Bluesky feel like a modular social media app.

Let’s say you don’t care about a boring chronological list of every account you follow. You don’t need to keep the Following feed as default. In fact, any feed you save can be your default landing spot. Maybe you just really want to see cats when you open BlueskyCat Pics can be your home feed.

On the Feeds page, simply tap the plus icon to save a feed to the My Feeds list. Then tap Edit in the top right corner. Here you can pin feeds to the home tab and rearrange them. The following is always the default if pinned, but if you unpin it, the first feed in your list becomes the default. Changes made here are reflected wherever you access Bluesky, including the mobile app.

Pinning feeds makes them super easy to switch between on the home tab. On Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, you’re stuck with whatever feeds they give you, but Bluesky changes that completely.

In a world of increasingly algorithmic social media, Bluesky’s approach to feeds is a breath of fresh air. It puts the power back in the hands of users, giving them the freedom to choose how they experience the app. And that, in my book, is a feature worth celebrating.