Is the grass greener on the opposite aspect? We’re undecided, however the sky is most definitely bluer. It’s been two years since Elon Musk bought Twitter, now X, main individuals to arrange store on various platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (two of which have already shuttered operations) and Spill have been offered as potential replacements, however few other than Meta’s Threads have achieved the pace of progress Bluesky has reached.
After being invite-only for nearly a 12 months, Bluesky turned open to anybody in February 2024 and gained nearly 800,000 new customers in a day. As of November 2024, Bluesky has over 14.5 million customers. Its progress stems from a number of coverage modifications at X, together with a closely criticized change to the block characteristic and permitting third occasion corporations to coach their AI on customers’ posts, which helped the app soar into the highest 5 apps within the U.S. App Store. Bluesky additionally noticed an enormous increase following the outcomes of the 2024 U.S. presidential election (which additionally contributed to an X exodus by Taylor Swift followers). But whereas the quantity is promising, the community has a whole lot of catching as much as do to compete with Threads’ 275 million month-to-month lively customers.
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 selection, a federated design and community-specific moderation.
Bluesky is utilizing an open supply framework constructed in-house, the AT Protocol, which 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 unbiased group of as much as 5 open supply architects, engineers, and designers,” charged with constructing a decentralized commonplace for social media, with the unique aim that Twitter would undertake this commonplace 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 unbiased public profit company led by CEO Jay Graber.
How do you employ Bluesky?
Upon signing up, customers can create a deal with which is then represented as @username.bsky.social in addition to a show identify that seems extra outstanding in daring textual content. If you’re so inclined, you possibly can flip a site identify that you simply personal into your username — so, for instance, I’m recognized on Bluesky as @amanda.omg.lol.
The app itself capabilities very like a bare-bones Twitter, the place you possibly can click on a plus button to create a submit of 256 characters, which might additionally embody photographs. Posts themselves will 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 observe different people, then view their updates in your “Home” timeline. Previously, the Bluesky app would characteristic 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” characteristic, which creates a curated listing of individuals and customized feeds to observe with the intention to discover attention-grabbing content material proper out of the gate.
User profiles comprise the identical kind 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 presents extra “who to observe” solutions and a working 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 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mark Cuban, Dril, Weird Al Yankovic, and even Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have migrated to Bluesky. It’s additionally house to information organizations like Bloomberg, The Washington Post, and naturally, TechCrunch! 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 concerned with implementing one thing just like X’s Community Notes characteristic. Additionally, X doesn’t use a decentralized protocol like ActivityPub or AT.
In October 2024, Elon Musk introduced that X’s block characteristic would work otherwise than it has previously. The new block performance permits customers you’ve gotten blocked to view your posts and your profile, however not the flexibility to work together along with your posts. Some customers consider this replace to be a security concern, resulting in an inflow in Bluesky sign-ups as its block characteristic is extra conventional.
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 unbiased firm since its inception in 2021.
Is Bluesky free?
Yes, and it’s now open to the general public.
How does Bluesky earn money?
Bluesky’s aim is to seek out one other means to maintain its community outdoors of promoting with paid providers, so it may stay free to finish customers. On July 5, 2023, Bluesky introduced extra seed spherical funding and a paid service that gives customized domains for finish customers who need to have a singular area as their deal with on the service. Bluesky has additionally emphasised that it doesn’t need to “require promoting consumer information for advertisements” with the intention to monetize its platform.
In November 2024, Bluesky introduced it raised a $15 million Series A spherical and is growing a subscription service for premium options like “greater high quality video uploads or profile customizations.” Bluesky, nevertheless, famous its subscription mannequin won’t observe within the footsteps of X’s “pay to win” premium choices.
Is Bluesky decentralized?
Yes. Bluesky’s group is growing the decentralized AT Protocol, which Bluesky was constructed atop. In its beta part, customers can solely be a part of the bsky.social community, however Bluesky plans to be federated, which means that limitless 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 might soar over to the brand new app and port over their current followers, deal with and information.
“You’ll all the time have the liberty to decide on (and to exit) as a substitute of being held to the whims of personal corporations or black field algorithms. And wherever you go, your folks and relationships can be there too,” a Bluesky weblog submit defined.
Is Bluesky safe?
In October 2023, Bluesky added e-mail verification as half of a bigger effort to enhance account safety and authentication on the community. The addition is a vital step ahead when it comes to making Bluesky extra aggressive with bigger networks like X, which have extra sturdy safety controls. In December 2023, Bluesky allowed customers to decide out of a change that may expose their posts to the general public net following backlash from customers.
Is Bluesky customizable?
Yes. In May 2023, Bluesky launched customized algorithms, which it calls “customized feeds.” Custom feeds permit customers to subscribe to a number of totally different algorithms that showcase totally different sorts of posts a consumer could need to see. You can pin customized feeds that may present up on the prime of your timeline as totally different tabs to select from. The feeds you pin, or save, are situated beneath the “My Feeds” menu within the app’s sidebar.
In March 2024, the corporate introduced “AT Protocol Grants,” a brand new program that may dole out small grants to builders with the intention to foster progress and customization. One of the recipients, SkyFeed, is a customized device 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.
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 supply 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 average racist content material. Following an issue concerning the app permitting racial slurs in account handles, annoyed 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 submit 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 may then be reviewed by the app’s moderation group.
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 without delay. The app can be growing a characteristic that lets customers restrict who can reply to posts.
Some Bluesky customers are nonetheless advocating for the flexibility to set their accounts to non-public — a characteristic they’ve an elevated want for after Bluesky introduced it will launch a public net interface.
In March 2024, the corporate launched Ozone, a device that lets customers create and run their very own unbiased moderation providers that may 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 hitch looks like an not possible activity on Mastodon, and longtime customers are very defensive about their established posting norms, which might make becoming a member of the dialog intimidating. To stay aggressive, Mastodon just lately simplified its sign-up circulation, 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 choose and select which servers to hitch 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 website referred to as Happening.
If you’ve gotten extra FAQs about Bluesky not coated right here, depart us a remark beneath.
