When one app rises, another one falls. This transition is not quite as dramatic just yet, but X-alternative Bluesky is gaining traction in light of significant dissatisfaction among the former app’s participants. Twitter/X users are deleting their accounts and moving to Bluesky in large numbers, growing the open-source platform from 800,000 users in February 2024 to over 16 million users in November 2024. In the last two days, the platform has gone up from 18 million to 19 million users.
When Elon Musk initially took over the platform, many users were already dissatisfied with the direction it was taking and the pointed lack of regulation that was seen on it. Many apps tried to market themselves as the “X alternative” back then, but ultimately they all failed to establish themselves in any real sense.
Meta also came out with its Threads app in an attempt to homogenize the social media app space entirely with offerings of its own, but unsurprisingly, the company failed to really replace Twitter/X.
Image: Bluesky
What Is the X Alternative Bluesky That Everyone Is Talking About?
Social media platform Bluesky was founded by then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in 2019. It initially started as an internal project funded by Twitter, with the goal of creating an open-source network that Twitter could eventually adopt.
After Musk took over Twitter in 2022, Bluesky formally separated from the platform as well. The company began to function independently under CEO Jay Graber, but until this year, it was an invite-only platform so it remained closed to the public as its creators tried to workshop it into something that was ready for the larger world.
In February, the company became open to everyone, gaining over 800,000 users at the time. Since then, many beloved public figures like Weird Al Yankovic, Guillermo Del Toro, Ben Stiller, and Stephen King have migrated to the platform, with news portals like The Washington Post and NPR also making the move. Last week, Graber took to the platform to report that it was growing by 10,000 users every 10 to 15 minutes.
me watching Bluesky’s user count grow by another million in a day
hello and welcome to all 19M of you! 🥳
— Bluesky (@bsky.app) November 18, 2024 at 8:21 AM
The platform uses an open-source framework that it built up, Authenticated Transfer Protocol (AT Protocol), which allows account portability and interoperability between different apps. The decentralized nature of the protocol allows it to expand beyond the control of a single entity, freeing users to have a greater say over the app and its algorithm. Users can move their accounts and their connections to different apps that also adopt the same protocol.
How Does Bluesky Work?
X alternative Bluesky looks and feels just like the Bird app, however, it is a lot more simplistic in both design and content. You can create 256-character text posts and include images with them to share with your followers. Just like Twitter/X, you can still like, reply, and reshare posts to the platform or share it externally.
There’s a Discovery page where you can look at recent posts or scroll through the personalized feed of accounts you follow. Bluesky does not have a group chat option but it did introduce a direct messaging feature in case you want to chat with a user privately.
When you create an account, you can pick a username which will be displayed as “@username.bsky.social” to those who see your profile. If you want a separate display name, you can add that in as well, with a picture or customized avatar. If you have a separate domain already, Bluesky will allow you to drop the “bsky.social” attachment to your handle and add your own.
Image: The layout and aesthetic of Bluesky is quite similar to Twitter/X.
Exploring Why Users Are Switching to Bluesky
Elon Musk’s takeover of X/Twitter signaled the downfall of the platform for many, and while it is still as full of active users as ever before, many have found themselves unsatisfied by the direction the platform has taken over the last year and the form of negative “free-speech” that now populates the site.
It’s quite common to see any given post on the app being flooded with negativity and hate speech. The polarized opinions on anything, from topics from video games to tech news, have created an unpleasant atmosphere for users and Bluesky now appears to be providing the light at the end of the tunnel.
It won’t be long before the unpleasantness of Twitter/X migrates to Bluesky as well, but the newer app has a more efficient blocking system that can help you gain some space from the blocked user. This list of blocked accounts is public but if you only mute an account, this detail remains private. Don’t like how your quote is being used in another post? Bluesky will give you a way to remove yourself from the conversation.
Bluesky has had its fair share of complaints over the lack of moderation on the app, but the company is expected to bring a more advanced automation tool to tag and take down content that violates guidelines. The bots have already begun arriving in hoards and spreading inappropriate content on the platform.
Additionally, X users are moving to Bluesky because they can comfortably migrate their accounts and followers without losing any of them. Also, there is no central algorithm that determines what you see, so customizing your feed to present content that you specifically opted into is much easier. Creating lists and grouping accounts that match your interests is also very convenient.
It has to be said that the Twitter/X CEO’s involvement in the government has also encouraged many to participate in the mass exodus.
Bluesky Promises to Remain Ad-Free
Musk’s strategy of pay-to-be-verified eliminates any sense of authenticity that the original accounts of different organizations previously held. The X alternative, Bluesky, has no such system. The link to the domain name adds a lens of authenticity to official accounts. It also promises to be entirely ad-free.
A paid version will eventually make an appearance to support the platform in exchange for features like higher-quality videos or profile customization, but it is said that these accounts will not be prompted or popularized any more than other platforms.
The Bluesky platform’s growth marks a significant moment in the history of social media, but it is unclear if it’ll truly be able to take over the spot that Twitter/X holds currently. There is a risk of creating another eco chamber of opinions that the older has created, but the decentralized, interest-based feeds could do something to mitigate that.
If you’re interested in giving the platform a shot, Bluesky is available both on Android and iOS and can be accessed through the web as well. All in all, the rising popularity of the new social media app has reminded users why the tweet-style posts gained popularity in the first place and how different the in-app experience once used to be. Will Bluesky be able to sustain this growth and retain its users?
