As a holiday treat, Bluesky is finally adding trending topics to its site and app, although they're currently in beta. The feature is a Twitter (now X) classic and has been on Threads for about nine months, so it's a no-brainer for any new social media site trying to play catch up. However, Bluesky's implementation is a bit clever—it lets you disable the feature entirely, and respects your muted keywords.
At the moment, Bluesky's trending topics feed is in testing, so you may not see it right away (I didn't). To check if you have it, tap the search button in Bluesky's website or on the app. If the feature has rolled out to you, you'll see trending posts below the text box. They're not listed in any sort of order or priority, so just expect a loose collection of popular keywords rather than an organized list.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of trending topics, since they push me to engage in conversations I might prefer to avoid, and it's always unclear how genuine they are—is there actually news worth discussing, or is the algorithm just suggesting I help pump up posts on a particular topic it thinks I like?
Fortunately, for people like me, it's possible to disable Bluesky's trending topics feature altogether. Disabling it is as simple as clicking the X button next to the Trending list, but for more detailed control, go to Bluesky's content and media settings page (Settings > Content and media) to access the trending topic toggle.
It's not entirely clear if Bluesky's trending topics are as personalized (re: useless) as those on X, but we do know they aren't filtered by region, at least yet. According to Bluesky, the feature is currently only available only in English. Importantly, your muted keywords are also hidden from your list of trending topics. This way, you won't be forced to see posts about politics or other topics that you might want to avoid.
The new feature, while no doubt handy to some, isn't the only way to find trending topics on Bluesky. For user-generated options, go to Bluesky's Feeds page and search for "trending." This will reveal other feeds that track trending posts on the social network, such as Trending News, Blacksky: Trending, and Trending Links. You can add these feeds to your profile and even set one as your default if you wish.
If that doesn't cut it, try using Sill, which allows you view only the links shared by people you follow. Sill lets you view the most popular posts first, and if you follow lots of popular accounts, you can use the service to keep a tab on Bluesky's hottest topics.
