Is the grass greener on the other side? We can’t be sure, but the sky is definitely bluer. Nearly two years after Elon Musk acquired Twitter (now X), people have set up shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (now defunct), and Spill have been suggested as potential alternatives, but few have achieved the growth rates Bluesky has achieved, except for Meta’s Threads.
After being invite-only for almost a year, Bluesky opened to everyone in February 2024 and was gaining around 800,000 new users per day. As of September 2024, Bluesky has over 9 million users, thanks to an influx of users after X was banned in Brazil. The numbers are promising, but the network has a lot of catching up to do to compete with Threads’ 130 million monthly active users or Mastodon’s 1.8 million.
What is Blue Sky?
Blue Sky is a decentralized social app conceived by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and developed in parallel with Twitter. The social network features a Twitter-like user interface with algorithmic selection, federated design, and community-based moderation.
BlueSky uses AT Protocol, an open source framework that it has built itself. This means that people outside the company can have transparent access to how the framework is built and what is being developed.
Dorsey introduced the Bluesky project in 2019 when he was Twitter’s CEO. At the time, he said Twitter would fund “a small, independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers” to build a decentralized standard for social media, with the original goal being for Twitter to adopt the standard. However, that was before Elon Musk acquired the platform, so Bluesky is entirely separate from Twitter.
As of May 2024, Dorsey is no longer on Bluesky’s board of directors. Bluesky is now an independent public benefit company led by CEO Jay Graber.
How do I use Bluesky?
When signing up, users can create a handle, which is represented as @username.bsky.social, and also a display name, which is displayed more prominently in bold. If you wish, you can replace your own domain name with your username. For example, I am known on Bluesky as @amanda.omg.lol.
The app itself functions much like basic Twitter, with a plus button that lets you create 256-character posts, which can include photos. The posts themselves can be replied to, retweeted, liked, reported via the three-dot menu, shared to other apps via the iOS share sheet, or copied as text.
You can search and follow other individuals, then see their updates in your “Home” timeline. Previously, the Bluesky app displayed popular posts in a “What’s Hot” feed. That feed has since been replaced by an algorithmic, personalized “Discover” feed that shows more than just trending content.
For new users, Bluesky has introduced a “Starter Pack” feature that helps you discover interesting content right away by creating a curated list of people and custom feeds to follow.
User profiles have the same kind of features you'd expect: a profile picture, background, bio, metrics, and the number of people you follow. The profile feed is split into two sections, like Twitter: Posts and Posts & Replies.
At the bottom center of the app navigation is the “Discover” tab, which offers more “People to Follow” suggestions and a running feed of recently posted Bluesky updates.
Who's in Blue Sky?
In early July 2023, when Instagram’s Threads launched, Bluesky surpassed 1 million downloads on iOS and Android. Celebrities like Neil Gaiman, Dril, and Chelsea Manning have moved to Bluesky. It’s also home to news organizations like Bloomberg, The Washington Post, and Engadget. Starting in August 2024, Bluesky is allowing heads of state to join and join the platform for the first time.
Does Bluesky work the same as X?
In many ways, yes. Until recently, Bluesky didn’t have a DM like X, but it has since been implemented. However, Bluesky’s DM is currently limited to one-on-one messages, not group messages. Bluesky has also said that they are interested in implementing something similar to X’s community notes feature. Also, X doesn’t use a decentralized protocol like ActivityPub or AT.
Blue Sky originally started as a project conceived by Jack Dorsey in 2019 while he was CEO of Twitter, but the social app has been an independent company since its founding in 2021.
Is Blue Sky free?
Yes, it is now open to the public.
How does Blue Sky make money?
Blue Sky's goal is to find other ways to sustain the network beyond advertising through paid services, so that it can remain free to the end user. On July 5, Blue Sky announced additional seed round funding and a paid service that provides custom domains to end users who want their own domains with service handles.
Is Blue Sky decentralized?
Yes. The team at Bluesky is developing 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 be federated. This means that there can be an infinite number of individual operating communities within the open source network. So if a developer outside of Bluesky builds their own new social app using the AT protocol, Bluesky users can move to the new app and port their existing followers, handles, and data.
“You will always have the freedom to choose (and leave) your own business, unencumbered by the whims of private companies or black-box algorithms. And wherever you go, your friends and relationships will be there with you,” the Bluesky blog post explains.
Is Blue Sky safe?
Blue Sky October 2023 Add email authentication As part of a larger effort to improve account security and authentication on the network, this addition is a significant step forward in making Bluesky more competitive with larger networks with stronger security controls, such as X. In December 2023, Bluesky allowed users to opt out of the changes. Make your posts public on the public web. Following user backlash.
Is Blue Sky customizable?
Yes. In May 2023, Bluesky launched a custom algorithm called “Custom Feeds.” Custom Feeds allow you to subscribe to different algorithms that show you different types of posts you want to see. You can pin a custom feed that appears at the top of your timeline, creating a variety of tabs to choose from. Pinned or saved feeds can be found under the “My Feeds” menu in the app sidebar.
In March 2024, the company announced: “AT Protocol Subsidy” A new program that provides micro-grants to developers to encourage growth and customization. One of the recipients is SkyFeed, a custom tool that allows anyone to build their own feed using a graphical user interface.
Is Bluesky available on iOS and Android?
Yes, Bluesky has been released. Android users It was released on April 20th, and was first released to iOS users in late February. Users can access Bluesky on the web. here.
Are Blue Sky Pillars really called 'Skeets'?
Technically, there is no name for the posts, but Internet users have adopted the name “skeets,” a portmanteau of “tweet” and “sky.” Despite protests from Bluesky CEO Jay Graber and others who find the slang unfunny, users still widely refer to the posts as “skeets.”
How does Blue Sky handle misinformation?
As of the October 2023 update, the app now flags links that may be misleading to users. If a link shared in a user’s post doesn’t match the text, the app will provide the user with a “potentially misleading” warning to warn them that the link may lead them to an unintended destination.
Has there been any controversy about Blue Sky?
Bluesky has struggled with censorship issues since its initial launch, with the app being criticized for failing to protect marginalized users and failing to censor racist content. Controversy Frustrated that the app allowed racial slurs in account handles, users began a “post strike,” pledging not to engage with the platform until it sets guardrails for labeling slurs and other offensive terms in usernames.
What review features does Bluesky have?
A post from the Bluesky Safety account in December 2023 contained a large number of Review Update.
Bluesky is rolling out “more advanced automated tools” designed to flag content that violates its community guidelines, which are then reviewed by the app’s moderation team.
Bluesky has released a similar moderation feature to X. It includes a user list and a moderation list, the latter of which can be used to mute or block multiple users at once. The app is also developing a feature that will allow users to limit who can reply to their posts.
Some Bluesky users are still advocating for the ability to make their accounts private, a feature that has become even more necessary since Bluesky announced it was launching. Public web interface.
March 2024, The company launched Ozone.A tool that allows users to create and run their own independent orchestration services. “Unprecedented control” About your social media experience.
What is the difference between Blue Sky and Mastodon?
Bluesky’s architecture is similar to Mastodon’s, but many users find Bluesky more intuitive, while Mastodon can feel less accessible. Choosing which instances to join on Mastodon can feel like an impossible task, and long-time users can be very defensive about established posting norms, making it intimidating to join a conversation. In an effort to stay competitive, Mastodon recently simplified its signup flow, making mastodon.social the default server for new users.
But the release federation It works more like Mastodon, allowing users to choose which server to join and move their accounts as they wish.
Who owns Blue Sky?
Jack Dorsey funded Bluesky, but he is not involved in day-to-day development and is no longer on the company’s board. Bluesky’s CEO is Jay Graber, who previously worked as a software engineer for the cryptocurrency Zcash and founded an event planning site called Happening.
If you have any further FAQs about Bluesky that aren't mentioned here, please leave a comment below.
