Is the grass greener on the opposite facet? We’re undecided, however the sky is most actually bluer. It’s been virtually two years since Elon Musk bought Twitter, now X, main individuals to arrange store on various platforms. Mastodon, Publish, Pebble (which has already shuttered operations) and Spill have been offered 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 12 months, Bluesky grew to become 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 quite a lot 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’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 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, 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. 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 normal for social media, with the unique purpose that Twitter would undertake this normal itself. However that was earlier than Elon Musk purchased the platform, so Bluesky is totally divorced from Twitter.
As of Could 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 distinguished in daring textual content. In case you’re so inclined, you may flip a website identify that you just personal into your username — so, for instance, I’m identified on Bluesky as @amanda.omg.lol.
The app itself features very like a bare-bones Twitter, the place you may click on a plus button to create a put up of 256 characters, which might additionally embody pictures. Posts themselves may be replied to, retweeted, favored and, from a three-dot menu, reported, shared through the iOS Share Sheet to different apps, or copied as textual content.
You possibly can seek for and comply with different people, then view their updates in your “Home” timeline. Beforehand, the Bluesky app would function standard 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” function, which creates a curated listing of individuals and customized feeds to comply with with a view to discover fascinating content material proper out of the gate.
Person 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 may be additionally a “Discover” tab within the backside heart of the app’s navigation, which provides extra “who to follow” solutions and a operating feed of not too long ago 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 Publish 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 identical to X?
In some ways, sure. Up till not too long ago, Bluesky didn’t have DMs like X, however that has since been carried out. Nonetheless, DMs on Bluesky are presently restricted to one-to-one messages, not group messages. Bluesky has additionally stated it’s fascinated by implementing one thing much like X’s Neighborhood Notes function. Moreover, X doesn’t use a decentralized protocol like ActivityPub or AT.
Whereas 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?
Sure, and it’s now open to the general public.
How does Bluesky earn a living?
Bluesky’s purpose is to seek out one other means to maintain its community outdoors of promoting with paid companies, so it could possibly 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 singular area as their deal with on the service.
Is Bluesky decentralized?
Sure. 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, that means that infinite individually operated communities can exist throughout 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 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 electronic 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 strong safety controls. In December 2023, Bluesky allowed customers to decide out of a change that might expose their posts to the general public internet 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 totally different algorithms that showcase totally different sorts of posts a consumer might need to see. You possibly 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 underneath 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 a view to foster development and customization. One of many 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?
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 net right here.
Are Bluesky posts actually referred to as ‘skeets?’
There may be technically no identify for posts, however web customers have adopted the identify “skeets,” a portmanteau of “tweet” and “sky.” Customers nonetheless extensively confer with posts as “skeets,” regardless of protests from Bluesky CEO Jay Graber and others who don’t discover the slang amusing.
How does Bluesky deal with 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 “possibly misleading” 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 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 Pointers that may then be reviewed by the app’s moderation group.
Bluesky launched moderation options much 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 function that lets customers restrict who can reply to posts.
Some Bluesky customers are nonetheless advocating for the power to set their accounts to non-public — 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 unbiased moderation companies 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 appears like an not possible process 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 not too long ago simplified its sign-up move, making mastodon.social the default server for brand spanking 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 isn’t concerned in day-to-day improvement 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 referred to as Taking place.
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