It's been over a year since Elon Musk bought Twitter, now Meta threads have reached the growth speed that Bluesky has achieved.
Bluesky is still invite-only in its beta, but as more people sign up, the hype around it is growing, although as we know from apps like Clubhouse, the hype may not last forever. Meanwhile, Bluesky has now reached more than two million users, up from the million they reported in September. The app saw approximately 8.300 first-time installs per day in July 2023, on average, although they have not released any substantial updates on download data since then. And when Musk makes unfavorable changes to X, Bluesky often sees record usage. Although many people were desperate for an invite code during the site's launch (even to the point of purchasing them on eBay) they have become much more accessible as more join the app.
Most common questions about Bluesky:
What is blue sky?
Bluesky is a decentralized social application conceptualized by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and developed in parallel with Twitter. The social network has a Twitter-like user interface with algorithmic choice, a federated design, and community-specific moderation.
Bluesky is using an open source framework built in-house, the AT protocol meaning that people outside the company have transparency into how it is built and what is developed.
Dorsey introduced the Bluesky project in 2019, when he was still CEO of Twitter. At the time, he said Twitter would fund a “small independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers and designers” tasked with building a decentralized standard for social media, with the original goal of Twitter adopting this standard itself. . . But that was before Elon Musk will buy the platform, so at the end of 2022, Bluesky is completely divorced from Twitter. Dorsey has even used Bluesky to express her dismay at Musk's leadership.
Twitter is funding a small independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers and designers to develop an open, decentralized standard for social media. The goal is for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard. - (@Jack) December 11th 2019
How to use Bluesky?
Once invited, users create an identifier that is then represented as @username.bsky.social, as well as a display name that appears more prominently in bold text. If you wish, you can make a domain name you own your username; For example, Juan Perez may be known on Bluesky as @jperez.com.
The app itself works much like a basic Twitter, where you can click a plus button to create a 256-character post, which can also include photos. The posts themselves can be replied to, retweeted, liked and, from a three-dot menu, reported, shared via iOS' share option with other apps or copied as text.
You can search for and follow other people and then see their updates on your “Home” timeline. Previously, the Bluesky app featured popular posts in a “What's New” feed. That source has since been replaced by an algorithmic source and Custom feed “Discover” featuring more than just trending content.
There's also a "Discover" tab at the bottom center of the app navigation, offering more "who to follow" suggestions and an up-to-date feed of recently released Bluesky updates.
How do I get invited to Bluesky?
New users receive an invitation code every two weeks they are in the Bluesky app. The company monitors the social graph and gives users who invite trusted participants more invitation codes to share.
Long-term, Bluesky says sees the invite code system as one part of the open source tool it is creating to help administrators curate and moderate their communities.
Who is on Bluesky?
In early July 2023, when Instagram Threads launched, Bluesky surpassed one million downloads on iOS and Android. In September 2023, the app officially arrived. one million users. Notable figures such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Neil Gaiman, and Chelsea Manning have migrated to Bluesky. It is also home to organizations and journalists such as X Exile NPR, Taylor Lorenz and Jake Tapper.
Does Bluesky work the same as Twitter?
In many ways, yes. However, Bluesky still doesn't have direct messages or some advanced tools like adding accounts to lists. Additionally, Twitter does not use a decentralized protocol like ActivityPub or AT.
Bluesky was initially born as a project convened by Jack Dorsey in 2019 when he was CEO of Twitter. But the social app has been an independent company since its creation in 2021.
Is Bluesky free?
Yes, but access is currently by invitation only.
How does Bluesky make money?
Bluesky's goal is to find another means of sustaining its network outside of advertising, so that it can remain free for end users. On July 5, Bluesky announced an additional funding round and a paid service that provides custom domains for end users who want to have a unique domain as a service identifier.
Is Bluesky decentralized?
Yes. The Bluesky team is developing the decentralized AT protocol, which Bluesky was built on. In its beta phase, users can only join the bsky.social network, but Bluesky plans to be federated, meaning infinite individually operated communities can exist within the open source network. So if a developer outside of Bluesky created their own new social app using the AT protocol, Bluesky users could jump to the new app and transfer their existing followers, handles, and data. In November, Bluesky announced its intention to launch its federation “early next year.”
“You will always have the freedom to choose (and exit) rather than being subject to the whims of private companies or black box algorithms. And wherever you go, your friends and your relationships will be there too.” as explained in a post on his blog.
Is Bluesky safe?
In October 2023, Bluesky added email verification as part of a larger effort to improve account security and authentication on the network. The addition is an important step forward in terms of making Bluesky more competitive with larger networks like X, which have stronger security controls.
Is Bluesky customizable?
Yes. In May, Bluesky launched custom algorithms, or what it calls "custom feeds." Custom feeds allow users to subscribe to multiple different algorithms that display different types of posts a user may want to see. You can set custom feeds that will appear at the top of your timeline as different tabs to choose from. The feeds you pin or save are found in the “My Feeds” menu in the app's sidebar.
Is Bluesky on iOS and Android?
Yes. Bluesky was released to Android users on April 20 and was initially released to iOS users in late February. Users can access Bluesky on the web clicking here. Bluesky also recently launched a third-party app called GraySky that is set to launch on iOS and Android.
Are Bluesky posts really called 'skeets'?
There is technically no name for the posts, but Internet users have adopted the name "skeets," a portmanteau of "tweet" and "sky." Users still widely refer to the posts as “skeets,” despite the protests of Bluesky CEO Jay Graber and others who don't find the slang funny for other similar references.
How does Bluesky address misinformation?
Following an October update, the app will now warn users about misleading links by flagging them. If links shared in users' posts don't match their text, the app will offer a "possibly misleading" warning to the user to alert them that the link may be directing them somewhere they don't want to go.
Has Bluesky had any controversy?
Bluesky has had moderation issues since its first release. The app has been accused of failing to protect its users marginalized and not to moderate racist content. Because the app allowed racial slurs in account handles, frustrated users went on a “posting strike,” in which they refused to interact with the platform until it set up barriers to flag slurs and other offensive terms in account names. user.
What was the 'thread from hell'?
Basically, too many people responded to a thread, notifications from everyone in the thread got interrupted, the post became unmuteable, and the thread split. on a bunch of different threads. It was chaos.
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, while Mastodon can seem inaccessible: choosing which instance to join seems like an impossible task on Mastodon, and veteran users are very defensive. about their stated posting standards, which can make joining the conversation intimidating. To remain competitive, Mastodon recently simplified its registration flow, making mastodon.social the default server for new users.
Who owns Bluesky?
Although Jack Dorsey funded Bluesky and sits on the company's board of directors, he is not involved in day-to-day development. Bluesky's CEO is Jay Graber, who previously worked as a software engineer for the Zcash cryptocurrency and later founded an event planning site called Happening.
