Short answer: open any curation list and pin it, and it becomes its own timeline tab next to Following. It works for lists you made and for lists other people made. The result is a chronological feed of just those accounts, with no algorithm and nothing missing.
This is one of the most useful things you can do on Bluesky, and one of the least obvious. Here's how to do it, how to keep your tabs in order, and why a list timeline behaves differently from everything else you've pinned.
The Quick Answer
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Can I pin a list as a feed? | Yes – curation lists only |
| Can I pin someone else's list? | Yes – any public curation list |
| Is it chronological? | Yes – newest first, no ranking |
| Do I have to follow the people on it? | No |
| Does the owner get notified? | No |
| Can I reorder pinned feeds? | Yes, and the order is saved to your account |
How to Pin Your Own List
- Go to your profile and open the Lists tab.
- Open the curation list you want as a timeline.
- Use the list's pin option (in the official app it’s near the top of the list view).
- Go back to Home. The list now appears as a tab alongside Following and any feeds you've pinned.
If you don't have a list yet, make one first: our lists tutorial covers creating a curation list and adding people. Ten to fifty accounts is a comfortable size for a tab you'll actually read.
One thing that trips people up: only curation lists can be pinned. A moderation list is for muting or blocking, and it has no feed to pin. If you don't see a pin option, check which kind of list it is.
How to Pin Someone Else's List
You don't have to build lists yourself. Someone has very likely already made a good one for your topic, whether that's a beat reporter list, a team's writers, or the speakers at a conference.
- Find the list. Usually that means opening the Lists tab on the profile of someone who curates your topic, or following a link someone posted. Our guide to finding lists on Bluesky has more ways.
- Open it and pin it, the same way you'd pin your own.
Pinning someone else's list is a live subscription. When the owner adds a person, their posts start showing up in your tab. When the owner removes someone or deletes the list, it changes for you too. That's the appeal (someone else does the upkeep) and the risk (you're trusting their judgment). If you'd rather have control, make your own copy by building a list with the same people.
Pinning is also private. Your pinned and saved feeds are stored in your account preferences, not as a public record in your repo, and the owner isn't notified. That's different from the list itself, which is public. See are Bluesky lists public? for the details.
How to Reorder Pinned Feeds
Once you've pinned a few lists and feeds, order matters, because the first few tabs are the ones you'll actually look at.
In the official app, open your feeds settings (from the Feeds screen) and drag pinned items into the order you want. You can unpin from the same place. Exact labels have moved around between versions, but it's always under feeds.
The order is saved to your account in Bluesky's saved-feeds preference, so it carries across devices and to other apps that read that preference.
Why a List Feed Is Different
This is the reason list timelines are worth the trouble. A list feed is chronological and complete: every post from the people on the list, newest first, with nothing ranked, boosted or dropped.
| List feed | Following | Custom feed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whose posts | Only list members | Everyone you follow | Whatever the algorithm picks |
| Ordering | Chronological | Chronological | Up to the feed's builder |
| Ranking or filtering | None | Your reply and repost settings apply | Yes, by design |
| Size | Small and bounded | Grows with every follow | Can be enormous |
| Depends on an outside service | No | No | Yes, the feed generator |
Following is chronological too, but it's everyone you've ever followed in one stream, so a busy topic drowns out everything else. A custom feed can be great, but it's an algorithm running on someone else's server, and you can't really audit what it leaves out. A list sits in between: a fixed set of people, in order, served directly by Bluesky's AppView with no third-party service involved.
That makes lists the right tool for anything where you don't want to miss posts: a live game, a breaking story, a conference, a small group of friends. It also means you can follow fewer people. Put a topic in a list tab instead of following forty accounts, and your Following feed stays readable.
A note on what you'll see: your mutes and blocks generally still apply in a list feed, so muted and blocked accounts stay out of it. And a list feed is built from members' own posts, so it won't mirror how Following handles reposts and replies exactly.
Practical Setups That Work
- A "close friends" tab. A short list of people you never want to miss, pinned first.
- A beat or team tab. Reporters for one team or one subject, pinned during the season and unpinned after.
- An event tab. Speakers or accounts covering an event, pinned for a week.
- A borrowed tab. Someone else's well-maintained list, pinned, so they do the upkeep.
Lists are cheap. Make one per context, and pin and unpin them as your attention moves. A pinned list you don't read is just a tab in the way.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I pin a list as a feed on Bluesky?
Open the curation list and use its pin option. The list then appears as a tab alongside Following and your other pinned feeds. Only curation lists can be pinned; moderation lists can't.
Can I pin someone else's Bluesky list?
Yes. Any public curation list can be pinned by anyone. The owner still controls who is on it, so your pinned feed changes when they add or remove people.
Is a Bluesky list feed chronological?
Yes. A list feed shows posts from the list's members newest first, with no ranking algorithm. Nothing is boosted or hidden for engagement.
Does the list owner know I pinned their list?
Pinning is stored in your account preferences, which are private, and Bluesky doesn't notify the owner. Unlike a public record, it isn't something other people can look up.
How do I reorder pinned feeds on Bluesky?
In the official app, go to your feeds settings and drag pinned feeds into the order you want. The order is saved to your account, so it follows you between devices and apps that read Bluesky's saved feed preferences.
List Timelines in Skyscraper
- One floating feed selector holds your pinned feeds, custom feeds, lists and saved searches, so switching to a list tab is one tap
- Lists show whether they're pinned (new in 1.7.1), so you can tell at a glance which lists are already in your tabs
- Feed order syncs over iCloud, so your tab order matches across your iPhone, iPad and Mac