So, Medium Has a New Mute Function?

What can it do and what impacts will it have

Photo by Tỷ Huỳnh from Pexels

The Medium.com platform just came out with a new mute function this week. In case you haven’t read about it, here’s the article announcing it:

Mute: A new way to control your Medium experience

It’s definitely an interesting choice for the next feature release, among the many, many they could’ve focused on instead.

But one positive thing to come of this is it looks like they’re finally agreeing the mysterious Medium algorithm isn’t perfect.

“no algorithm is perfect, and sometimes we surface content you aren’t interested in.” — Medium Overlords

They’re just scratching the surface with that comment, but at least it’s a scratch in the right direction.

Still, as a former head of product for a multinational tech company, I’m always interested in changes to platforms that I use, even if it's just to satisfy my curiosity.

Why a mute button?