Short answer: Yes, you can control who can reply to a Bluesky post. Tap the interaction button in the composer and choose Everybody, Nobody, or any mix of people you mention, people you follow, your followers and members of your lists. You can change it after posting and hide individual replies.

Here is where each setting lives, how to set a default for every post, what hiding a reply really does, and what reply limits cannot do.

On this page:

The Direct Answer

Question Answer
Can I limit who can reply? Yes – per post, from the composer
Can I turn replies off completely? Yes – choose Nobody
Can I allow followers only? Yes – choose Your followers
Can I set a default? Yes – Settings → Moderation → Interaction settings
Can I change it after posting? Yes – from the post's three-dot menu
Can I hide a reply someone already left? Yes – Hide reply for everyone
Does it hide my post from anyone? No – it limits replies, not visibility

How Do You Limit Who Can Reply on Bluesky?

  1. Open the composer. Start a new post in the Bluesky app.
  2. Open interaction settings. Tap the interaction button below the text box. It reads Anyone can interact by default.
  3. Choose who can reply. Pick Everybody, Nobody, or any combination of people you mention, people you follow, your followers and members of your lists.
  4. Save and post. Tap Save, finish your post and publish it. The reply limit is attached to the post when it goes out.

The same panel holds the quote setting, so this is also where you stop people quoting a post. That has its own rules and its own "detach" tool, covered in our guide to Bluesky quote post settings.

What Does Each Bluesky Reply Option Mean?

Option Who can reply Good for
Everybody Anyone who hasn't blocked you or been blocked by you Most posts
Nobody No one but you, so you can still add to your own thread Announcements, statements, posts that will attract a pile-on
Mentioned users Only accounts you @mention in the post Conversations with specific people in public
Users you follow Accounts you follow Keeping replies to people you already trust
Your followers Accounts that follow you Cutting drive-by replies from strangers while staying open to your audience
Members of a list Anyone on a list you own Communities, teams, friend groups

Everything except Everybody and Nobody can be combined. Picking "Users you follow" plus a list, for example, lets in people you follow or anyone on that list. The rules are additive: meeting any one of them is enough to reply.

The list option is the most flexible and the least used. If you already curate a Bluesky list for a team or a hobby, you can reuse it as a reply allowlist and update membership in one place. Note that a list's membership is public, which our guide Are Bluesky lists public? explains.

Does "Your followers" stop new accounts that follow just to reply?

Not by itself. Someone can follow you and then reply. If drive-by follows are the problem, "Users you follow" or a list is stricter, because you decide who is in.

How Do You Set a Default Reply Setting for Every Post?

If you find yourself changing the same setting on every post, set a default instead:

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Go to Moderation, then Interaction settings.
  3. Choose who can reply and whether quotes are allowed.

Every new post starts with those settings, and you can still override them in the composer for a single post. The default does not reach back into old posts; those keep whatever they were published with. Bluesky added this default in early 2025 and has since refreshed the composer so the controls are easier to find, so the exact wording may differ slightly in your version of the app.

Can You Change Who Can Reply After Posting?

Yes. Open the three-dot menu on your post and choose the option to edit interaction settings. This is useful when a post takes off and the replies turn sour: switch it to Your followers or Nobody, and the flood stops.

  • It applies going forward. Replies already posted stay where they are. To deal with those, hide them (below).
  • It applies to the whole thread. The rule you set on the first post governs replies anywhere in the thread underneath it.
  • You can loosen it again. Changing back to Everybody reopens replies.

How Do You Hide Replies on Bluesky?

For a reply under your own post, open its three-dot menu. There are two different options:

  • Hide reply for everyone. The reply is moved out of your thread into a collapsed hidden-replies section at the bottom. People can still open it if they want; it just no longer sits in the conversation. The author is not notified.
  • Hide reply for me. Only your own view changes. Everyone else still sees it.

Hiding is not deleting. The reply is the other person's record in their own repository, and only they can delete it. If the problem is the person rather than one reply, muting or blocking is the stronger tool: a block also prevents them from replying to you at all. For whole categories of accounts, moderation lists do the work for you.

How Do Bluesky Reply Settings Work Under the Hood?

A reply limit is not a field on the post. It is a separate record, app.bsky.feed.threadgate, written into your repository alongside the post and pointing at it. Because it is separate, you can create, change or delete it after posting without touching the post itself.

A simplified threadgate looks like this:

{
  "$type": "app.bsky.feed.threadgate",
  "post": "at://did:plc:abc123/app.bsky.feed.post/3lxyz...",
  "allow": [
    { "$type": "app.bsky.feed.threadgate#followerRule" },
    { "$type": "app.bsky.feed.threadgate#listRule",
      "list": "at://did:plc:abc123/app.bsky.graph.list/3kabc..." }
  ],
  "hiddenReplies": [
    "at://did:plc:xyz789/app.bsky.feed.post/3lqrs..."
  ],
  "createdAt": "2026-10-05T14:00:00.000Z"
}

An empty allow array means Nobody; no threadgate at all means Everybody. The hiddenReplies array is where "Hide reply for everyone" is stored.

Two consequences follow from this design:

  • Reply settings are public. Like every record in your repository, a threadgate can be read by anyone. Apps use that to grey out the reply button and show "replies limited". It also means the list of replies you hid is public data.
  • Enforcement happens in the AppView. Nothing physically stops another app from writing a reply record that breaks your rule. The Bluesky AppView simply refuses to attach it to your thread, so it doesn't show up for anyone using an app built on that AppView, which is nearly all of them. Our ATProtocol federation guide explains how repositories and AppViews divide that work.

If you build on the API, write the threadgate right after the post using the same record key as the post, and read it back from app.bsky.feed.getPostThread to confirm it took. The read-after-write guide covers why a freshly written record can briefly be missing from AppView responses.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you limit who can reply to your posts on Bluesky?

Yes. When you write a post, open the interaction settings below the text box and choose Everybody, Nobody, or a mix of people you mention, people you follow, your followers and members of your lists.

Can I change who can reply after posting on Bluesky?

Yes. Open the post's three-dot menu and choose the option to edit interaction settings. The new rule applies to replies from that point on; existing replies stay unless you hide them.

How do I hide a reply on Bluesky?

Open the three-dot menu on a reply to your post and choose Hide reply for everyone. It moves behind a hidden replies section under your thread. Hide reply for me only affects your own view.

Does limiting replies hide my post?

No. Reply settings control who can respond, not who can see the post. Anyone who could see it before can still read, like, repost and, unless you also turn quotes off, quote it.

Can I set a default reply setting for all Bluesky posts?

Yes. In Settings, go to Moderation and then Interaction settings to choose the reply and quote options every new post starts with. You can still override them per post.

Are Bluesky reply settings public?

Yes. The reply rule is stored as a public threadgate record next to your post, so apps can show who can reply. Hidden replies are listed in the same public record.

Reply Settings in Skyscraper

Skyscraper's reply controls are threadgate-aware: when a post limits replies, the reply button reflects it instead of letting you write a reply that will never attach. Skyscraper also has the moderation tools that pair well with reply limits:

  • Mute words, reposts, replies and quote posts – quiet the noise around a busy thread
  • Block from the timeline, notifications or a hashtag feed – without digging through menus
  • Report posts and accounts – for replies that cross the line

Download Skyscraper →