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Bluesky Releases Internal Video and Music Player and ‘Hide Post’ Feature
December 29, 2023
On Tuesday, Bluesky, the decentralized, invite-only social network built on open-source protocol, announced that it is expanding its offering with a new integrated video and music player for links as well as a new “hide post” feature. These additions will align the user experience on the platform more closely with that of X, reports TechCrunch.
Since Elon Musk took over Twitter (now X), a number of new social media apps have appeared on the scene to catch the users who have been leaving the platform, and Bluesky is one of them.
The in-app player incorporates video and music from YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Twitch embeds. Differing from X’s approach, where autoplay on videos is the default setting, Bluesky’s new integrated player avoids autoplaying content. Users will need to actively choose to listen or watch a piece of content if they want to.
The second added element is the “hide post” feature, which will allow users to click on something they don’t wish to see again. The post will be removed from that user’s feed and, according to Bluesky, will be “put behind a mask if you visit it directly.”
Besides these changes, Bluesky has also resolved a bug that resulted in muted and blocked account listings to display as empty. Additionally, the platform addressed a separate issue that caused an empty home screen followed by a crash bug occurring when users interacted with threads.
The announcement of these new features came just a few days after Bluesky decided to allow users to look at posts on its platform without logging in. It’s still required for users to have an invitation to create an account and start posting, but posts can be read through a link. This transition means publishers can now link to or embed Bluesky posts in blogs, and they can share Bluesky posts in both group and individual chats.
The microblogging social media platform released its iOS and Android apps in February this year, and it hit 2 million users in November. Even though it is an AT Protocol network, it is aiming for federation in the next few months, which will allow it to “function as a more open social network like Mastodon where users can pick and choose which servers to join and move their accounts around at will.”
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