Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is definitely bluer. It’s been over a year since then Elon Musk bought Twitternow Xprompting people to set up shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, mail, pebble (The one above Closed operations) And Leak It was presented as Possible alternativesbut little Aside from the dead topics Bluesky has achieved the growth speed it has achieved.
Bluesky remains invite-only in its beta version, but as more people access the site, the hype around it is growing — though As we know from apps like ClubhouseThis hype may not last forever. Meanwhile, Bluesky has now reached over Two million users, up from the million they reported in September. Application saw approx 8,300 first-time installs per day In July 2023, on average, though they haven’t released substantive updates on download data since then. And when Musk makes unfavorable changes to X, Bluesky often does See log usage. Although many people were desperate to get the invite code during the website launch (even to the point of… Buy them on eBay) It’s becoming more accessible as more people join the app.
Here we answer the most frequently asked questions about the Bluesky Social app:
What is bluesky?
Bluesky is a decentralized social app designed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and developed in parallel with Twitter. The social network has a Twitter-like user interface with algorithmic selection, uniform design, and community-specific moderation.
Bluesky uses an open source framework created in-house AT protocolWhich means that people outside the company are transparent about how it is built and what is being developed.
Dorsey introduced Project Bluesky in 2019 while 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 that standard itself. . But that was before Elon Musk bought the platform, so as of late 2022, Bluesky has been completely separated from Twitter. Dorsey even used Bluesky to express his displeasure with Musk’s leadership.
Twitter is funding a small, independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media. The goal is for Twitter to eventually become a client of this standard. 🧵
-Jack (@jack) December 11, 2019
How to use Bluesky?
Once invited, users create a handle that is then represented as @username.bsky.social along with a display name that appears more clearly in bold text. If you want, you can turn the domain name you own into your username — so, for example, TechCrunch’s Darrell Etherington on Bluesky is known as @etherington.com.
The app itself works much like Twitter, where you can tap the plus button to create a 256-character post, which can also include photos. The posts themselves can be replied to, retweeted, liked, reported, shared via the iOS Share Sheet to other apps, from a three-dot menu, or copied as text.
You can search for and follow other people, then view their updates in your “main” timeline. Previously, Bluesky displayed popular posts in the “Hot Posts” feed. This feed has since been replaced by the and Personalized “Discover” feed It includes more than just popular content.
There’s also a Discover tab at the bottom center of the app’s navigation bar, which provides more Who to Follow suggestions and a running feed of recently posted Bluesky updates.
How do I get invited to Bluesky?
New users receive one invite code every two weeks while in the Bluesky app. The company monitors the social graph, giving users who invite trustworthy participants more invitation to participate codes.
long-term, Blosky says It views the invite token system as part of an open source tool being created to help server administrators organize and moderate their communities.
Who’s on Bluesky?
At the beginning of July 2023, when Instagram topics Launched, Bluesky has topped 1 million downloads Via iOS and Android. In September 2023, the app was officially launched million users. Prominent figures such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Neil Gaiman, and Chelsea Manning have immigrated to Bluesky. It is also home to organizations and journalists such as X exile NPR, Taylor Lorenz and Jake Tapper.
Does Bluesky work just like Twitter?
In many ways, yes. However, Bluesky doesn’t yet have direct messaging or some advanced tools like adding accounts to lists. Additionally, Twitter does not use a decentralized protocol like ActivityPub or in.
Bluesky was initially launched as a project championed by Jack Dorsey in 2019 when he was CEO of Twitter. But the social app has been an independent company since its inception in 2021.
Is Bluesky free?
Yes, but access is currently invite-only.
How does Bluesky make money?
Bluesky’s goal is to find another way to keep its network out of advertising through paid services, so it remains free for end users. On July 5, Bluesky announced additional seed funding and a paid service that provides custom domains to end-users who want a unique domain to serve as their handler on the service.
Is Bluesky decentralized?
Yes. The Bluesky team is developing the decentralized AT protocol, on which Bluesky is built. In its beta phase, only users can join the bsky.social network, but Bluesky plans to be federated, meaning the possibility of countless individually managed 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 jump into the new app and navigate through their existing followers, engagement, and data. In November, Bluesky announced its intention to launch its consortium “early next year.”
“You will always have the freedom to choose (and exit) instead of being subject to the whims of private companies or black box algorithms. And wherever you go, your friends and relationships will be there too. Bluesky’s blog post explained.
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 more robust security controls.
Is Bluesky customizable?
Yes. In May, Bluesky released custom algorithms, or what it calls “personalized feeds.” Personalized feeds allow users to subscribe to multiple different algorithms that display different types of posts a user might want to see. You can pin custom feeds that will appear at the top of your timeline as different tabs to choose from. Feeds you pin or save are located under the My Feeds list in the app’s sidebar.
Is Bluesky available on iOS and Android?
Yes. Bluesky rolled for Android users on April 20 and initially launched for iOS users in late February. Users can access Bluesky on the web here. Bluesky also recently launched a third-party app called Gray Sky Which is set to launch on iOS and Android.
Are Bluesky posts really called “skeets”?
Technically, the posts don’t have a name, but netizens have adopted the name “skeets,” a combination of the words “tweet” and “sky.” Users still widely refer to the posts as “skeets,” despite protests from Bluesky CEO Jay Graber and others who don’t find the semen slang amusing.
How does Bluesky deal with misinformation?
After the October update, the app will now warn users about misleading links by reporting them. If the links shared in users’ posts don’t match their text, the app will present a “Possibly misleading” warning to the user alerting them that the link may direct them somewhere they don’t want to go.
Has Bluesky had any controversies?
Bluesky has had moderation issues since it was first released. The app has been accused of failing to protect its marginalized users and failing to moderate racist content. the next Argument About the app allowing racial slurs in account handles, frustrated users began a “post strike,” refusing to engage with the platform until it created guardrails for reporting slurs and other offensive terms in usernames.
What is the “Thread of Hell”?
Basically, too many people responded to one thread, everyone in the thread got cut off from their notifications, the post became impossible to ignore and the thread was split In a group of different subtopics…It was chaos. You had to be there.
What is the difference between a bluesky and a mastodon?
Although Bluesky’s architecture is similar to Mastodon’s, many users have found Bluesky to be more intuitive, while Mastodon is less accessible: Choosing an instance to join seems like an impossible task on Mastodon, and long-time users are very defensive about deployment standards Their own, which can make joining the conversation intimidating. In order to remain competitive, Mastodon recently simplified the signup process, making Mastodon.social the default server for new users.
Who owns Bluesky?
Although Jack Dorsey has 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 cryptocurrency Zcash, then founded an event planning site called It is happening.
If you have more FAQs about Bluesky that aren’t covered here, leave us a comment below.