Is the grass greener on the opposite aspect? We’re unsure, however the sky is most definitely bluer. It’s been nearly two years since Elon Musk bought Twitter, now X, main individuals to arrange store on various platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (which has already shuttered operations) and Spill have been offered as potential replacements, however few apart from Meta’s Threads have achieved the velocity of progress Bluesky has reached.
After being invite-only for nearly a yr, Bluesky grew to become open to anybody in February 2024 and gained nearly 800,000 new customers in a day. As of September 2024, Bluesky has over 9 million customers, due to an inflow of customers after X was banned in Brazil. While the quantity is promising, the community has a number of catching as much as do to compete with Threads’ 130 million month-to-month lively customers and even Mastodon’s 1.8 million.
What is Bluesky?
Bluesky is a decentralized social app conceptualized by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and developed in parallel with Twitter. The social community has a Twitter-like consumer interface with algorithmic alternative, a federated design and community-specific moderation.
Bluesky is utilizing an open supply framework constructed in-house, the AT Protocol, that means individuals outdoors of the corporate have transparency into how it’s constructed and what’s being developed.
Dorsey launched the Bluesky venture again in 2019 whereas he was nonetheless Twitter CEO. At the time, he mentioned Twitter can be funding a “small impartial staff of as much as 5 open supply architects, engineers, and designers,” charged with constructing a decentralized normal for social media, with the unique objective that Twitter would undertake this normal itself. But that was earlier than Elon Musk purchased the platform, so Bluesky is totally divorced from Twitter.
As of May 2024, Dorsey is not on Bluesky’s board. Bluesky is now an impartial public profit company led by CEO Jay Graber.
How do you utilize Bluesky?
Upon signing up, customers can create a deal with which is then represented as @username.bsky.social in addition to a show title that seems extra outstanding in daring textual content. If you’re so inclined, you’ll be able to flip a site title that you simply personal into your username — so, for instance, I’m recognized on Bluesky as @amanda.omg.lol.
The app itself features very like a bare-bones Twitter, the place you’ll be able to click on a plus button to create a put up of 256 characters, which may additionally embrace photographs. Posts themselves could be replied to, retweeted, appreciated and, from a three-dot menu, reported, shared through the iOS Share Sheet to different apps, or copied as textual content.
You can seek for and comply with different people, then view their updates in your “Home” timeline. Previously, the Bluesky app would function well-liked posts in a “What’s Hot” feed. That feed has since been changed with an algorithmic and customized “Discover” feed that includes extra than simply trending content material.
For new customers, Bluesky launched a “Starter Pack” function, which creates a curated checklist of individuals and customized feeds to comply with in an effort to discover fascinating content material proper out of the gate.
User profiles comprise the identical form of options you’d anticipate: a profile pic, background, bio, metrics and the way many individuals they’re following. Profile feeds are divided into two sections, like Twitter: posts and posts & replies.
There can be a “Discover” tab within the backside heart of the app’s navigation, which affords extra “who to comply with” ideas and a operating feed of just lately posted Bluesky updates.
Who’s on Bluesky?
By the start of July 2023, when Instagram’s Threads launched, Bluesky topped 1,000,000 downloads throughout iOS and Android. Notable figures like Neil Gaiman, Dril and Chelsea Manning have migrated to Bluesky. It’s additionally dwelling to information organizations like Bloomberg, The Washington Post and Engadget. Since August 2024, Bluesky can be now permitting heads of state to enroll and be a part of the platform for the primary time.
Does Bluesky work similar to X?
In some ways, sure. Up till just lately, Bluesky didn’t have DMs like X, however that has since been applied. However, DMs on Bluesky are at the moment restricted to one-to-one messages, not group messages. Bluesky has additionally mentioned it’s fascinated about implementing one thing just like X’s Community Notes function. Additionally, X doesn’t use a decentralized protocol like ActivityPub or AT.
While Bluesky was initially kicked off as a venture convened by Jack Dorsey in 2019 when he was CEO of Twitter, the social app has been an impartial firm since its inception in 2021.
Is Bluesky free?
Yes, and it’s now open to the general public.
How does Bluesky earn a living?
Bluesky’s objective is to search out one other means to maintain its community outdoors of promoting with paid companies, so it might stay free to finish customers. On July 5, Bluesky introduced extra seed spherical funding and a paid service that gives customized domains for finish customers who need to have a novel area as their deal with on the service.
Is Bluesky decentralized?
Yes. Bluesky’s staff is creating the decentralized AT Protocol, which Bluesky was constructed atop. In its beta section, customers can solely be a part of the bsky.social community, however Bluesky plans to be federated, that means that infinite individually operated communities can exist inside the open supply community. So, if a developer outdoors of Bluesky constructed their very own new social app utilizing the AT Protocol, Bluesky customers may bounce over to the brand new app and port over their current followers, deal with and information.
“You’ll at all times have the liberty to decide on (and to exit) as an alternative of being held to the whims of personal corporations or black field algorithms. And wherever you go, your pals and relationships will likely be there too,” a Bluesky weblog put up defined.
Is Bluesky safe?
In October 2023, Bluesky added electronic mail verification as half of a bigger effort to enhance account safety and authentication on the community. The addition is a crucial step ahead by way of making Bluesky extra aggressive with bigger networks like X, which have extra strong safety controls. In December 2023, Bluesky allowed customers to decide out of a change that may expose their posts to the general public internet following backlash from customers.
Is Bluesky customizable?
Yes. In May 2023, Bluesky launched customized algorithms, which it calls “customized feeds.” Custom feeds enable customers to subscribe to a number of totally different algorithms that showcase totally different sorts of posts a consumer might need to see. You can pin customized feeds that can present up on the high of your timeline as totally different tabs to select from. The feeds you pin, or save, are positioned underneath the “My Feeds” menu within the app’s sidebar.
In March 2024, the corporate introduced “AT Protocol Grants,” a brand new program that can dole out small grants to builders in an effort to foster progress and customization. One of the recipients, SkyFeed, is a customized software that lets anybody construct their very own feeds utilizing a graphical consumer interface.
Is Bluesky on iOS and Android?
Yes. Bluesky rolled out to Android customers on April 20 and was initially launched to iOS customers in late February. Users can entry Bluesky on the net right here.
Are Bluesky posts actually known as ‘skeets?’
There is technically no title for posts, however web customers have adopted the title “skeets,” a portmanteau of “tweet” and “sky.” Users nonetheless extensively seek advice from posts as “skeets,” regardless of protests from Bluesky CEO Jay Graber and others who don’t discover the slang amusing.
How does Bluesky sort out misinformation?
After an October 2023 replace, the app will now warn customers of deceptive hyperlinks by flagging them. If hyperlinks shared in customers’ posts don’t match their textual content, the app will provide a “probably deceptive” warning to the consumer to alert them that the hyperlink could also be directing them someplace they don’t need to go.
Has Bluesky had any controversies?
Bluesky has been embattled with moderation points since its first launch. The app has been accused of failing to guard its marginalized customers and failing to reasonable racist content material. Following an issue in regards to the app permitting racial slurs in account handles, pissed off customers initiated a “posting strike,” the place they refused to interact with the platform till it established guardrails to flag slurs and different offensive phrases in usernames.
What moderation options does Bluesky have?
A December 2023 put up from the Bluesky Safety account introduced a big batch of moderation updates.
Bluesky is rolling out “extra superior automated tooling” designed to flag content material that violates its Community Guidelines that can then be reviewed by the app’s moderation staff.
Bluesky launched moderation options just like ones on X, together with consumer lists and moderation lists, the latter of which can be utilized to mute or block many customers directly. The app can be creating a function that lets customers restrict who can reply to posts.
Some Bluesky customers are nonetheless advocating for the power to set their accounts to personal — a function they’ve an elevated want for after Bluesky introduced it might launch a public internet interface.
In March 2024, the corporate launched Ozone, a software that lets customers create and run their very own impartial moderation companies that can give customers “unprecedented management” over their social media expertise.
What’s the distinction between Bluesky and Mastodon?
Though Bluesky’s structure is just like Mastodon’s, many customers have discovered Bluesky to be extra intuitive, whereas Mastodon can come off as inaccessible: Choosing which occasion to affix appears like an unattainable activity on Mastodon, and longtime customers are very defensive about their established posting norms, which may make becoming a member of the dialog intimidating. To stay aggressive, Mastodon just lately simplified its sign-up movement, making mastodon.social the default server for brand new customers.
However, the launch of federation will make it work extra equally to Mastodon in that customers can decide and select which servers to affix and transfer their accounts round at will.
Who owns Bluesky?
Though Jack Dorsey funded Bluesky, he’s not concerned in day-to-day growth and not sits on the corporate’s board. The CEO of Bluesky is Jay Graber, who beforehand labored as a software program engineer for the cryptocurrency Zcash, then based an event-planning web site known as Happening.
If you’ve got extra FAQs about Bluesky not coated right here, depart us a remark beneath.