Mastodon has two ways to mark posts: Favourites and Bookmarks. These are similar, but they differ in important ways. Here’s a quick comparison:
- Favourites can be added by clicking on the star icon ⭐ below a post. Favourites are pretty much the Mastodon equivalent of likes, and usually used to indicate you enjoy or appreciate a post. When you add a favourite, the person who posted it will get a notification, and your profile may be visible on the list of people who favourited it.
- Bookmarks can be added either by clicking on the bookmark icon 🔖 below a post, or if it isn’t visible click on the ⋯ to open the menu and select Bookmark. Bookmarks are totally private, no one else sees what you bookmark. No one gets any notifications when you add a bookmark.
Why are there two separate features that are so similar?
Because people use Favourites for likes, their favourites list can become unreadably large as it is full of posts that people enjoyed reading but don’t want to refer to later.
Bookmarks let you create a much shorter list of posts you do want to go back to later, rather than an enormous list of all the posts you enjoyed.
How do I browse my favourites and bookmarks?
If you’re using Mastodon through your server’s website or the web app, click the Favourites or Bookmarks icons at the right side of the screen.
On third party and official apps, you can usually see your favourites and bookmarks by going to your profile page (click on the icon containing your profile image to see your profile page). Favourites are usually indicated by a star icon, Bookmarks by a bookmark icon.
Can I transfer my bookmarks and favourites if I migrate my account to another server?
You can transfer your bookmarks (see steps 2 and 3 in the account transfer guide), but you can’t transfer your favourites.