In the absence of 🔔⁺ notification support on Bluesky, there is a workaround with RSS feeds!

By "🔔⁺ notifications", I mean the feature that exists on platforms like Twitter where you get a notification whenever somebody of interest you follow makes a new post.

Bell icon button on Twitter / X.

Following 1000 users is great, but sometimes you want to keep up-to-date with 5 or 6 Bluesky faves!

What is an RSS feed?

Many sites generate RSS feeds for their news articles, blog articles, or social media posts. An RSS feed is a file generated by a website upon user request that contains information on all the latest posts.

A traditional blog might have a single RSS feed for all the latest posts. A news site might have several: an RSS feed for sports news, an RSS feed for political news, and an RSS feed for entertainment news.

Bluesky gives EVERY user their own RSS feed that displays all their latest posts!

But how do I view an RSS file?

RSS files are written in a format called XML (similar to HTML) which is technical and hard to read.

That's why RSS feeds are intended to be read with an "RSS reader" - an app that converts that messy XML code into something sane for humans to read.

RSS readers let you add multiple RSS feeds and combines them into a single chronological timeline for you.

How do I use an RSS feed reader?

There are plenty of RSS feed readers around and they all have slightly different interfaces. But crucially, you will import RSS feeds by copying the address of the RSS feed and pasting it into a field in the RSS feed reader.

Bluesky RSS feeds are at the address:

bsky.app/profile/<username>/rss

e.g. bsky.app/profile/kamu.bsky.social/rss

You can add as many RSS feeds as you like to your RSS reader! RSS readers also have import/export functions so if you want to move to a new reader or a new phone, you can just export the full list of RSS feeds you've already added.

Limitations

1. The RSS feeds of users that have the "discourage logged out users from viewing your content" option turned on in their Bluesky settings do not have accessible RSS feeds. Attempts to retrieve their RSS feed will result in a "403 error", so you won't be able to follow their RSS feeds.
   (Usernames that are simply misspelled will result in a "404 error").

2. RSS feeds usually allow for text AND images. However, it's up to the site owner to choose how RSS items are generated and what they include.
   
   Unfortunately, Bluesky's RSS feeds are currently text-only and do not contain the images in a post. However, they do include a hyperlink allowing you to go view the media directly on Bluesky. Image posts will appear in your feed as a blank entry with a link to the Bluesky post. Depending on the reader software, the link to the original post may be a text hyperlink or an app button.
   
   

How do I get push notifications on mobile 📳 when a fave of mine posts?

Only some RSS feeder apps have push notification functionality.

If you find one that does and enable push notifications, it will likely come with a setting asking you how frequently to update. This means how frequently your phone sends out requests to the websites to send you the most up-to-date RSS feed. The minimum refresh rates are generally bewteen 15 minutes to 1 hour depending on the app. Perhaps not the instant alert you're used to, but do you really need to be hooked in to social media 24/7?

Some apps can be a little temperamental with the push notification service so if you haven't been getting any alerts, re-open the app and it should remember what it's supposed to be doing and start working again! It will show you all the posts you've missed in the interim.

Great, but can you recommend me an RSS reader?

There are plenty of RSS readers available and I'm no expert in which is the best. Here are the two I've seen good feedback from:

Apple:

I don't have an Apple phone but I've seen NetNewsWire recommended on iOS as it's free, open-source and has push notification functionality. If you try it, let me know if it's any good!

Android:

On Android I'm currently using Feeder by NoNonsenseApps as it's free, open-source and has push notification functionality. It's sadly not available on Apple iOS.

Example in Android Feeder:

Feeder comes with a boring default feed that you'll want to delete when you first open in.

Now you are ready to Add more feeds.

Paste in the RSS address bsky.app/profile/<username.bsky.social>/rss - changing <username.bsky.social> to the username you want to follow.

If you want push notifications, turn on "Notify for new items".

You can leave all the other settings as they are. As Bluesky posts are short and length-limited, you don't have to worry about the "full articles" switch so much. "Default app" means when you follow a link to a post source, your phone will try to open it directly in the Bluesky app.

Now you have the RSS feed in your reader and can read the latest posts!

And you can view all feeds at once or look at them individually! RSS feeders keep track of how many unread posts you have and reminder push notifications may continue to be sent if you leave them unread.

Here I've set the app to refresh the RSS feeds every 15 minutes.

In Android Feeder, this button takes you through to the original source link on Bluesky. Other reader apps may use text hyperlinks or different icons.

Another button specific to Android Feeder. This button will clear that RSS feed and all the messages will disappear, but don't panic - you'll still recieve future feed updates! This is useful when there are several unread posts you have already seen on Bsky and want to get rid of them all together.