Bluesky has introduced private bookmarks, answering one of the community’s most requested features. The company confirmed on Monday that users can now “save” posts using a new bookmark icon located under each update, alongside the familiar heart button. All saved posts are collected in a dedicated “Saved” tab within the app’s main navigation.
At first glance, bookmarks might appear redundant in a social app that already has likes, but the distinction lies in privacy. On Bluesky, likes are public—anyone can see which posts you’ve tapped the heart on. That’s not always ideal. Journalists, for instance, may want to quietly keep track of posts they plan to reference without broadcasting their interests. Other users might simply prefer to save personal content, or posts they don’t want publicly tied to their account.
Bluesky’s new feature sidesteps this issue by storing bookmarks off-protocol, since the AT Protocol that powers Bluesky doesn’t yet support private data. The company has taken a similar approach with its direct messages. If the protocol evolves to allow private interactions, bookmarks could eventually be re-integrated in a different way, but for now, they remain private by design.
The change also helps the platform move away from awkward workarounds. Many Bluesky users had been replying to posts with a red pushpin emoji as a way of flagging content for later—an improvised solution that’s now been replaced with a proper bookmarking system, complete with a migration tool for those who used the emoji method.
This update comes shortly after Bluesky rolled out a separate round of improvements, including support for both photo and video uploads, better tools for giving feedback to custom feed creators, and the ability to add users to a “Starter Pack” of recommended follows.
By giving users a private way to collect posts, Bluesky is addressing both a functional gap and a cultural one: offering a feature that encourages engagement without forcing everything into the public spotlight.
