Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is certainly bluer. It’s been over a year since Elon Musk announces his offer to buy Twitterand those who opposed the sale tried to set up shop on platforms like Mastodon, Substack Notes, T2… but none of these Twitter Alternatives they really have captured lightning in a bottle just like Bluesky.
Bluesky is still invite-only in its beta, but as more people get on the site, the hype around it grows—although, as we know from apps like Clubhouse, the hype might not last forever. Meanwhile, Bluesky now has around 50,000 users, but according to data.ai estimates, the app has been downloaded more than 375,000 times. So many people are trying to get an invite that they have started showing up. on sale on eBay (we advise against making that purchase).
Here we answer the most common questions about Bluesky social:
What is BlueSky?
blue sky is a decentralized social app 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 protocolwhich means that people outside the company have transparency on how it is built and what is being developed.
Dorsey introduced the Bluesky project 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 this standard itself. . . But that was before Elon Musk bought the platform, so as of the end of 2022, Bluesky is completely divorced from Twitter. Dorsey has even sky blue used to express his dismay 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, decentralized standard for social media. The goal is for Twitter to finally be a client of this standard. 🧵
—jack (@jack) December 11, 2019
How is Bluesky used?
Once invited, users create an identifier that is then rendered as @username.bsky.social, as well as a display name that appears more prominent in bold text. If you want, you can convert a domain name you own to your username; for example, TechCrunch’s Darrell Etherington is known on Bluesky as @etherington.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 the iOS Share Sheet with other apps, or copied as text.
You can find and follow other people, then see their updates on your “Home” timeline. There’s also a “What’s Hot” timeline, which showcases engaging posts. User profiles contain the same type of features you’d expect: a profile picture, background, bio, metrics, and how many people are following. Profile feeds are divided into two sections, like Twitter: Posts and Posts & Replies.
There’s also a “Discover” tab at the bottom center of the app’s navigation, offering more “who to follow” suggestions and a continuous feed of recently released Bluesky updates.
Image Credits: Natalia Christman
How do I get invited to Bluesky?
New users receive an invite code every two weeks they are in the Bluesky app. The company monitors the social graph, giving users who invite trusted participants more invite codes to share.
Long-term, blue sky says he sees the invite code system as a part of the open source tool he’s building to help server admins curate and moderate their communities.
Who’s on Bluesky?
At the end of April 2023, Bluesky reached 50,000 users on the platform. Notable figures and organizations, from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to Exile from Twitter NPR have found a new home in Bluesky.
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. Also, Twitter does not use a decentralized protocol like ActivityPub or IN.
Bluesky initially started as a project called for 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 currently it is invite-only access.
Is Bluesky decentralized?
Yes. The Bluesky team is developing the decentralized AT Protocol, which Bluesky is built on. In its beta phase, users can only join the bsky.social network, but Bluesky plans to federate, meaning infinitely many individually operated communities can exist within the open source network. So, if a developer outside of Bluesky built their own new social app using the AT Protocol, Bluesky users could jump into the new app and transfer their existing followers, handles, and data.
Is Bluesky on iOS and Android?
Yes. Bluesky extended to android users on April 20 and initially launched for iOS users at the end of February. Technically, the platform doesn’t have a web app yet, but if you’re logged in and go to staging.bsky.app, a whole new world will open up for you.
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 protests from Bluesky CEO Jay Graber and others who don’t find the slang for semen amusing.
Why do people post about the ‘hellthread’?
Alas, the thread from hell. You had to be there. Basically, too many people replied to a thread, everyone in the thread broke notifications, the post became unmute, the thread split into a bunch of different sub-threads… It was chaos, and the developer was able to fix it. he was off work until Monday, as it was the weekend, and he rightfully stood his ground and took his days off, especially since he had been working tirelessly to get the blocking feature to work. Oh the joy of small startup teams! But this meant that the hellish thread proliferated throughout the weekend. As noted shit poster June wrote, “so far, on day 3 of hell thread, I’ve seen nudity, a game of tic tac toe, love meets, what hell thread can’t do.”
If you respond to the hell thread, you get stuck in the hell thread; i.e. you start getting all the notifications, but you can’t scroll that far up to see the whole hellthread, which makes it a bit confusing, and also, how do you know if you’re on the main hellthread or a sub- thread? It’s easier to conceptualize the hell thread if you imagine it more like a hell tree, with roots and branches of different sizes and strength.
To paraphrase Bluesky CEO Jay Graber, every bug that exists long enough becomes a feature.
Oh, there was also a duck bot who kept replying to the hellthread saying “😔🐥 No 💸, no qwack…”
What is the difference between Bluesky and Mastodon?
Although Bluesky’s architecture is similar to Mastodon’s, many users have found Bluesky to be more intuitive, while Mastodon can seem inaccessible: choosing which instance to join feels like an impossible task on Mastodon, and longtime users are very much into it. defensive about their established posting standards. , which can make joining the conversation intimidating. To remain competitive, Mastodon recently simplified your signup flow, making mastodon.social the default server for new users.
Who is the owner of Bluesky?
Although Jack Dorsey financed Bluesky and sits on the company’s board, 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, then founded an event planning site called Happening.
If you have any more Bluesky FAQs that aren’t covered here, please leave us a comment below.
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