Is the grass greener on the opposite facet? We’re undecided, however the sky is most definitely bluer. It’s been virtually two years since Elon Musk bought Twitter, now X, main individuals to arrange store on various platforms. Mastodon, Put up, Pebble (which has already shuttered operations) and Spill have been introduced as potential replacements, however few except for Meta’s Threads have achieved the velocity of development Bluesky has reached.
After being invite-only for nearly a yr, Bluesky turned open to anybody in February 2024 and gained virtually 800,000 new customers in a day. As of September 2024, Bluesky has over 9 million customers, because of an inflow of customers after X was banned in Brazil. Whereas the quantity is promising, the community has lots of catching as much as do to compete with Threads’ 130 million month-to-month energetic customers and even Mastodon’s 1.8 million.
What’s 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 person interface with algorithmic alternative, a federated design and community-specific moderation.
Bluesky is utilizing an open supply framework constructed in-house, the AT Protocol, which means individuals exterior of the corporate have transparency into how it’s constructed and what’s being developed.
Dorsey launched the Bluesky undertaking again in 2019 whereas he was nonetheless Twitter CEO. On the time, he stated Twitter can be funding a “small independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers,” charged with constructing a decentralized commonplace for social media, with the unique objective that Twitter would undertake this commonplace itself. However that was earlier than Elon Musk purchased the platform, so Bluesky is totally divorced from Twitter.
As of Could 2024, Dorsey is now 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 identify that seems extra distinguished in daring textual content. In case 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 put up of 256 characters, which might additionally embrace images. Posts themselves could be replied to, retweeted, favored and, from a three-dot menu, reported, shared by way of the iOS Share Sheet to different apps, or copied as textual content.
You’ll be able to seek for and observe different people, then view their updates in your “Home” timeline. Beforehand, the Bluesky app would characteristic in style posts in a “What’s Hot” feed. That feed has since been changed with an algorithmic and personalised “Discover” feed that includes extra than simply trending content material.
For brand new customers, Bluesky launched a “Starter Pack” characteristic, which creates a curated listing of individuals and customized feeds to observe as a way to discover attention-grabbing content material proper out of the gate.
Consumer profiles comprise the identical type 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’s additionally a “Discover” tab within the backside middle of the app’s navigation, which provides extra “who to follow” ideas and a working feed of lately posted Bluesky updates.
Who’s on Bluesky?
By the start of July 2023, when Instagram’s Threads launched, Bluesky topped one million downloads throughout iOS and Android. Notable figures like Neil Gaiman, Dril and Chelsea Manning have migrated to Bluesky. It’s additionally residence to information organizations like Bloomberg, The Washington Put up and Engadget. Since August 2024, Bluesky can be now permitting heads of state to enroll and be part of the platform for the primary time.
Does Bluesky work similar to X?
In some ways, sure. Up till lately, Bluesky didn’t have DMs like X, however that has since been applied. Nonetheless, DMs on Bluesky are presently restricted to one-to-one messages, not group messages. Bluesky has additionally stated it’s all in favour of implementing one thing much like X’s Neighborhood Notes characteristic. Moreover, X doesn’t use a decentralized protocol like ActivityPub or AT.
Whereas Bluesky was initially kicked off as a undertaking 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?
Sure, and it’s now open to the general public.
How does Bluesky generate income?
Bluesky’s objective is to search out one other means to maintain its community exterior of promoting with paid providers, so it may well stay free to finish customers. On July 5, Bluesky introduced further 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?
Sure. Bluesky’s group is creating the decentralized AT Protocol, which Bluesky was constructed atop. In its beta part, customers can solely be part of the bsky.social community, however Bluesky plans to be federated, which means that countless individually operated communities can exist inside the open supply community. So, if a developer exterior of Bluesky constructed their very own new social app utilizing the AT Protocol, Bluesky customers may leap over to the brand new app and port over their present followers, deal with and knowledge.
“You’ll always have the freedom to choose (and to exit) instead of being held to the whims of private companies or black box algorithms. And wherever you go, your friends and relationships will be there too,” a Bluesky weblog put up 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?
Sure. In Could 2023, Bluesky launched customized algorithms, which it calls “custom feeds.” Customized feeds enable customers to subscribe to a number of completely different algorithms that showcase completely different sorts of posts a person could need to see. You’ll be able to pin customized feeds that may present up on the high of your timeline as completely different tabs to select from. The feeds you pin, or save, are positioned below 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 as a way to foster development and customization. One of many recipients, SkyFeed, is a customized device that lets anybody construct their very own feeds utilizing a graphical person interface.
Is Bluesky on iOS and Android?
Sure. Bluesky rolled out to Android customers on April 20 and was initially launched to iOS customers in late February. Customers can entry Bluesky on the internet right here.
Are Bluesky posts actually known as ‘skeets?’
There’s technically no identify for posts, however web customers have adopted the identify “skeets,” a portmanteau of “tweet” and “sky.” Customers nonetheless extensively consult with 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 supply a “possibly misleading” warning to the person 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 in regards to the app permitting racial slurs in account handles, annoyed customers initiated a “posting strike,” the place they refused to have interaction 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 Security account introduced a big batch of moderation updates.
Bluesky is rolling out “more advanced automated tooling” designed to flag content material that violates its Neighborhood Tips that may then be reviewed by the app’s moderation group.
Bluesky launched moderation options much like ones on X, together with person lists and moderation lists, the latter of which can be utilized to mute or block many customers directly. The app can be creating 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 impartial moderation providers that may give customers “unprecedented control” over their social media expertise.
What’s the distinction between Bluesky and Mastodon?
Although Bluesky’s structure is much like Mastodon’s, many customers have discovered Bluesky to be extra intuitive, whereas Mastodon can come off as inaccessible: Selecting which occasion to affix looks like an inconceivable 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 lately simplified its sign-up circulation, making mastodon.social the default server for brand new customers.
Nonetheless, the launch of federation will make it work extra equally to Mastodon in that customers can choose and select which servers to affix and transfer their accounts round at will.
Who owns Bluesky?
Although Jack Dorsey funded Bluesky, he’s not concerned in day-to-day growth and now 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 Occurring.
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