You’ll soon have the option to explore up to 25 recommended accounts in a list. Mastodon’s new “Collections” feature is set to launch shortly, enabling the creation of account lists for recommending follows, as announced on Thursday. Inspired by Bluesky Starter Packs, Collections allow adding up to 25 accounts per list.
Users on participating servers can create a Collection with descriptions and topics, marking them as “sensitive” if desired, which conceals details behind a content warning. Previously mentioned as “Packs” last year, Collections allow opting out of being included in other lists, send notifications when added to a Collection, and offer a report feature for Collections.
Mastodon’s design head, Imani Joy, noted that Collections wouldn’t initially include a “Follow All” button due to feedback from Bluesky users experiencing issues with mass following, resulting in unsatisfactory feeds. The focus is on creating Collections rather than discovering them since a sufficient volume of community-created Collections is necessary before they become impactful for discovery. Eventually, Mastodon plans to let server owners recommend Collections during onboarding instead of suggesting accounts. This feature will begin rolling out on the mastodon.social server ahead of a wider release with Mastodon 4.6.