Bluesky app's latest update sorts replies by 'Hotness'

Bluesky has recently gained significant attention, driven by growing user dissatisfaction with how platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) and Meta handle content. Promising greater transparency and more user control, Bluesky has positioned itself as a Twitter successor. However, its stance on training AI models on users' posts has sparked criticism from users. It was found that while Bluesky itself doesn't use users' posts for training AI models, it also doesn't block third parties from doing so.

Now, it appears that the platform is also facing additional criticism following its latest app update, which started rolling out recently. While the Bluesky app version 1.95 fixes a lot of bugs, there is a new feature that sorts replies by "Hotness." According to a post on the platform, the official handle posted, "With this release, you can now display replies by “hotness,” which weights liked replies that are more recent more heavily."

By default, post replies are prioritized as "Hot replies first," sorting replies that have received more recent likes, pushing them to the top of the list. Users can still choose among other sorting options, such as Oldest replies first, Newest replies first, Most-Liked first, and Random (aka "Poster's Roulette").

Despite offering flexibility, the "Hotness" has drawn significant backlash from a lot of Bluesky users, many of whom feel like it mimics features that they disliked on other platforms like X (Twitter). Some even argue that it should've been an opt-in feature rather than the default setting.

Many users have voiced their frustration, mentioning that the presence of such features drove them away from platforms like X (formerly Twitter) in the first place. Thankfully, Bluesky gives users the option to change this setting. For that, you need to head over to Settings > Content and Media > Thread Preferences and choose a different sorting option under Sort replies. The new Bluesky update is live for Android and iOS.