What is Bluesky? Everything you need to know about competitor X.

Is the grass greener on the opposite side? We’re unsure, however the sky is definitely bluer. It’s been almost two years since Elon Musk bought Twitter, now X, prompting people to arrange shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (which has since gone out of business) and Spill have been floated as potential successors, but few of them apart from Meta’s Threads have achieved the expansion rates that Bluesky has achieved.

After almost a 12 months of existence as an invitation-only service, Bluesky opened to everyone in February 2024 and gained almost 800,000 latest users in in the future. As of October 2024, Bluesky has over 10 million users thanks to an influx of users following the X ban in Brazil and one other influx of users following the updated X rules, which helped the app rise to the highest 5 hottest apps within the US App Store. While the numbers are promising, the network has a number of catching up to do to compete Threads’ 175 million users a 12 months after its launch.

What is Bluesky?

Bluesky is a decentralized social networking application developed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and developed in parallel with Twitter. The social network has a Twitter-like user interface with a collection of algorithms, federated design, and community-specific moderation.

Bluesky uses a built-in open source framework, AT protocolmeaning those outside the corporate have transparency into the way it is built and what is being developed.

Dorsey introduced Project Bluesky in 2019, when he was still CEO of Twitter. He said on the time that Twitter would fund “a small independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers and designers” to construct a decentralized standard for social media, with the initial goal of Twitter adopting it itself. standard. . But that was before Elon Musk bought the platform, so Bluesky is completely separate from Twitter.

As of May 2024, Dorsey not serves on Bluesky’s board of directors. Bluesky is now an independent public profit corporation led by CEO Jay Graber.

How to use Bluesky?

Once registered, users can create a handle, which is able to then be represented as @username.bsky.social, in addition to a display name, which can be more visible in daring text. If you’re so inclined, you can replace the domain name you have already got along with your username – for instance, on Bluesky I’m often called @amanda.omg.lol.

The app itself works similarly to regular Twitter, where you can click the plus button to create a 256-character post that also can include photos. The posts themselves might be replied to, retweeted, liked, and might be reported via the three-dot menu, shared via the iOS share sheet with other apps, or copied as text.

You can search and follow other people, then view their updates in your “Home” timeline. Previously, Bluesky shared popular posts within the “What’s Hot” feed. This feed has since been replaced by an algorithmic and personalized ‘Discover’ feed, with greater than just popular content.

For latest users, Bluesky has introduced a “Starter Pack” feature that creates a curated list of individuals and custom channels that you can follow to immediately find interesting content.

User profiles include the identical features you’d expect: profile photo, background, bio, details, and the number of individuals they follow. Profile feeds are divided into two sections like Twitter: posts and posts and replies.

There’s also a “Discover” tab at the underside of the app’s navigation, which offers more suggestions for “who to follow” and a live feed of recently released Bluesky updates.

Who’s on Bluesky?

In early July 2023, when Instagram Threads launched, Bluesky downloads on iOS and Android exceeded a million. Prominent figures corresponding to Neil Gaiman, Drill AND Chelsea Manning they emigrated to Bluesky. It is also home to news organizations corresponding to Bloomberg, Washington Post. AND Engadget. As of August 2024, Bluesky now also allows heads of state to register and join the platform for the primary time.

Does Bluesky work the identical as X?

In some ways, yes. Until recently, Bluesky did not have DMs like X, but this has since been implemented. However, chats on Bluesky are currently limited to individual messages relatively than group messages. Bluesky also said it is inquisitive about implementing something similar to X’s Community Notes feature. Additionally, X doesn’t use a decentralized protocol like ActivityPub or ON.

In October 2024, Elon Musk announced that the X blocking feature will work in a different way than before. The latest blocking feature allows blocked users to view your posts and profile, but doesn’t allow them to interact along with your posts. Some users consider this update poses a security risk, leading to a rise in Bluesky sign-ups because the blocking feature is more traditional.

While Bluesky initially began as a project convened by Jack Dorsey in 2019 when he was Twitter’s CEO, the social media app has been an independent company since its inception in 2021.

Is Bluesky free?

Yes, and it is now open to the general public.

How does Bluesky generate profits?

Bluesky’s goal is to find one other way to maintain its network beyond promoting and paid services in order that it may possibly remain free for end users. On July 5, 2023, Bluesky announced additional seed round funding and a paid service that gives custom domains to end-users who wish to have a singular domain as a handle on the service. Bluesky also stressed that it doesn’t want to “require the sale of user data for advertising purposes” to monetize your platform.

Is Bluesky decentralized?

Yes. The Bluesky team develops the decentralized AT protocol on which Bluesky is built. In the beta phase, users can only join the bsky.social network, but Bluesky plans to create a federation, which suggests infinite, individually managed communities could exist on the open source network. So, if a non-Bluesky developer creates their very own latest social app using the AT protocol, Bluesky users will find a way to switch to the brand new app and transfer it to their existing followers, support, and data.

“You will always have the freedom to choose (and exit), rather than being swayed by the whims of private companies or black box algorithms. Wherever you go, your friends and relationships will be there too.” explained within the Bluesky blog post.

Is Bluesky secure?

In October 2023, Bluesky email verification added as part of a bigger effort to improve account security and online authentication. The addition of this service is a very important step forward in making Bluesky more competitive with larger networks like X which have more robust security controls. In December 2023, Bluesky gave users the chance to opt out of this alteration share your posts on a public network after users’ response.

Can Bluesky be customized?

Yes. In May 2023, Bluesky released custom algorithms that it calls “custom feeds.” Custom feeds allow users to subscribe to many various algorithms that present various kinds of posts that the user might want to see. You can pin custom channels, which is able to appear at the highest of your timeline as different tabs to pick from. Channels that you pin or save are positioned within the “My Channels” menu within the sidebar of the app.

In March 2024, the corporate announced “AT Protocol Subsidies”, a brand new program that can award small grants to developers to support development and customization. One recipient, SkyFeed, is a custom tool that enables anyone to construct their very own feeds using a graphical user interface.

Is Bluesky available on iOS and Android?

Yes. Bluesky rolled forward Android users on April 20 and was initially made available to iOS users in late February. Users can access Bluesky on the Internet Here.

How does Bluesky take care of disinformation?

Following the October 2023 update, the app will now warn users about misleading links by flagging them. If the links shared in users’ posts don’t match their text, the app will display a “possibly misleading” warning to the user that the link could also be taking them to a site they don’t desire to go to.

Has Bluesky had any controversy?

Since its initial launch, Bluesky has struggled with moderation issues. The app is accused of failing to protect marginalized users and moderating racist content. Next controversy over an app that allowed racial slurs in account names, frustrated users initiated a “posting warning” that resulted in them refusing to engage with the platform until it introduced barriers to flagging slurs and other offensive terms in usernames.

What moderation features does Bluesky have?

In a December 2023 post from the Bluesky Safety account, a big batch was announced moderation updates.

Bluesky is rolling out “more advanced, automated tools” designed to flag content that violates its Community Guidelines, which is able to then be reviewed by the app’s moderation team.

Bluesky has launched moderation features similar to those in X, including user lists and moderation lists, the latter of which might be used to mute or block multiple users without delay. The app is also working on a feature that enables users to limit who can reply to posts.

Some Bluesky users proceed to favor the flexibility to make their accounts private – a feature they needed more of after Bluesky announced it could launch the service public network interface.

In March 2024 the corporate introduced Ozon to the marketa tool that enables users to create and run their very own, independent moderation services that they make available to users “unprecedented control” on their experiences on social media.

What is the difference between Bluesky and Mastodon?

Although Bluesky’s architecture is similar to Mastodon, many users have found Bluesky to be more intuitive, whereas Mastodon can seem inaccessible: selecting which instance to join looks as if an unimaginable task on Mastodon, and long-time users are very defensive about adhering to established publishing norms. which may make joining the conversation intimidating. To stay competitive, Mastodon recently simplified the registration process by making mastodon.social the default server for brand new users.

However, launch federation will make it work more like Mastodon, as users will find a way to select which servers they need to join and transfer their accounts as they need.

Who owns Bluesky?

Although Jack Dorsey was the founding father of Bluesky, he is not involved in the corporate’s ongoing development and not serves on the corporate’s board of directors. Bluesky’s CEO is Jay Graber, who previously worked as a software engineer for the cryptocurrency Zcash after which founded an event planning site called Happening.