There is a new Bluesky application in the process of a popular iOS applications developer. TapbotsThe company behind the popular Mastodon client Ivory, born of His previous efforts with Tweetbot (RIP), is preparing a new application called Phoenix, designed for the growing social network of Bluesky of more than 32 million users.
In a publication on Bluesky, the company shared its website causing the new application, which is expected to be launched at some time at the end of this summer.
In his place, Tapbots clarified that his work in a Bluesky client does not mean that he is abandoning his efforts in the FederAlso known as the open social website. However, Ivory’s development will temporarily slow down as new efforts are made.
Ivory, that was launched in 2023He brought back the appearance of Tweetbot and several of its characteristics to offer an alternative to the official social application of Mastodon, an open source alternative, decentralized to larger platforms such as X. As a federated application, Ivory is integrated with Activitypub, the protocol that feeds a host of a federated host of applications, including not only mastodon applications, but also Pixed, but also Pixed, but also Pixed, but also pixed Pixed, Meta’s Threads, Flips, and others.
Meanwhile, Bluesky is based on a different protocol, the AT protocol (or atproto for abbreviation).
Since the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk and its transformation into X, many former Twitter users have moved to other networks, including Mastodon and Bluesky. For an independent operation such as Tapbots, that meant that its customer base was divided between two services, which makes it difficult to generate income with only one application.
“… so that we continue to thrive as a company, we must support both,” Tapbots shared on his website. “Unfortunately, we cannot survive only in Mastodon.”
The company also explains that it decided to launch a dedicated application for Bluesky users instead of combining the two networks in a single application because this would offer users a better experience. Those who want to maintain a presence on both social networks may take advantage of a planned cross publication function, he added.
Unfortunately for mastodon users, Ivory work must decrease as the team works to launch Phoenix.
“It would be a lie if we said that Ivory would be in full development while we are trying to put Phoenix into operation,” explains the website. “However, we did not want to start the development of Phoenix until after launching Ivory V2.3. Once Phoenix is out of the door, the development will occur simultaneously and both applications will obtain all the enormous improvements we have planned in all applications. “
Phoenix launch news were first reported by Macstories.
Although the company has not announced the Monetization strategy of Phoenix, it is likely to be a subscription model similar to Ivory’s, a free application with purchases in the application to access premium features. Currently, Ivory is $ 1.99 per month or $ 14.99 per year.
Phoenix will enter a limited public alpha phase before launch in the summer of 2025.