Launches the Blue Wave Beta of its Open Social Browser

Combine Profiles, Hashtags, Starter Packs and More Into Surf Custom Feeds 

Monday, March 10, 2025–Fediverse House, Austin, TX–Flipboard is rolling out the Blue Wave release of its open social browser, Surf (currently in private beta). With this release Surf users can log in with Bluesky and see all of their Bluesky feeds including their following feed, discover feed and any pinned custom feeds. They can also create new Surf feeds that include Bluesky sources as well as profiles from other federated social platforms, like Mastodon and Threads. With this expansion, Surf gives people an easy way to see all open social activity into one place, organize sources around their interests and engage with their community across platforms; a breakthrough experience for the open social web.

The Surf Blue Wave beta rolls out extensive Bluesky integration, starting with the ability for users to log into Surf with their Bluesky account. Once logged in, the user’s Bluesky feeds are accessible on their Surf home, they can interact with any Bluesky post or create new posts that share natively to their Bluesky community. They can also see their Bluesky likes and replies in the Activity tab. To engage with Mastodon or Threads posts, users can link a Mastodon account in their Surf settings, letting them interact with people on the ATproto network as well as those on ActivityPub.  

There is also more native Bluesky content now available on Surf. Bluesky Starter Packs, a popular way to recommend accounts to follow, Bluesky Lists and custom feeds have all been added as sources that can be found using search on Surf. Like profiles and hashtags, any of these sources can be added to a user’s Surf Home or into a custom feed simply by tapping the ‘star’ icon on the feed.

Unite Social Feeds into Timelines

Also in this beta, Surf introduces a unified home timeline. When a user opens Surf, they are now prompted to customize a home timeline or create a custom feed. The home timeline is designed as a space to unify Bluesky and Mastodon following feeds, but can also include other sources, like Starter Packs, lists and custom feeds. Surf is testing filters, so users can adjust their Home timeline to exclude issues or topics they don’t want to see in their feed.

In addition to creating a unified Timeline, Surf lets users easily create custom feeds for following specific groups of profiles or sources. Tap ‘Create a Custom Feed’, give the feed a name, search for sources (like profiles, hashtags, Starter Packs or YouTube channels) and tap the ‘star’ to add anything to the feed. Where the unified timeline gives people quick access to profiles they follow, custom feeds lets them focus their social media around areas of interest, so they can dive into their favorite topics instead of always scrolling through a feed of unrelated posts.

Communities and Custom Feeds

Hashtags unite people around ideas or conversations. Adding a hashtag to a Surf feed pulls together posts from federated Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon, giving a unified view into discussions happening across all three platforms. When logged into their Bluesky account, users can engage with their community from Surf, but also see hashtag activity happening on Mastodon or Threads. 

“As millions of people move to open social platforms, Surf makes it easy to join the conversation, regardless of the platform it’s happening on,” says Mike McCue, Flipboard CEO. “For example, to see what people are saying about SXSW this week, add #SXSW to a Surf custom feed and see posts from Bluesky, Threads and Mastodon, in one feed.”

For people managing their community experience on Surf, Surf is testing features such as the ability to exclude profiles, terms and hashtags to ensure the feed reflects the communities’ values and reduces noise in the feed. These filters and others can be found behind the three dot menu on any post as well as in feed settings.

About Flipboard

Flipboard, Inc. is the company building Surf. Flipboard is best known for its award winning social magazine app, Flipboard, where people go to flip through the news and information they want to keep up on. Join the Surf waitlist at surf.social. Download Flipboard for free in any app store or visit flipboard.com. Follow Flipboard on Threads, Mastodon and/or Bluesky.

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