Twitter is facing competition from its ex-CEO Jack Dorsey’s new rival called Bluesky. As social media giants like Facebook and Mastodon continue to pose a threat, Twitter now finds itself in direct competition with Bluesky – a decentralised social media protocol that was first announced in 2019. The latest development in this rivalry is that the Bluesky app has now been made available on the Apple App Store, allowing access to more beta testers.
While Bluesky for now is available through invitation only, it seems that a public launch may be on the horizon. Its makers have been relatively quiet since October 2022, when they shared an update on the Bluesky blog about its progress.
According to an app analytics firm data.ai, Bluesky was launched on February 17 and has seen over 2000 installs by beta testers by now. The app has a simple interface with a close resemblance to Twitter. Reportedly, the app has a plus button which when clicked will let its user create a post of 256 characters. Just like Twitter’s “What’s happening?”, Bluesky asks “What’s up?”
The app has mute, block, and share features along with a discover tab at the bottom that shows suggestions for who to follow. There is a separate Notification tab to check on all Bluesky activities done by user like likes, replies, follows and so on. Reportedly, there is no DM like feature in Bluesky.
Dorsey announced BlueSky in 2019 when he was the Twitter CEO. It was initially announced as a project that would be funded by Twitter to create an open and decentralized standard for social media. The legal entity of the app was created in 2022.
“Bluesky’s mission is to drive the evolution from platforms to protocols. The conceptual framework we’ve adopted for meeting this objective is the “self-authenticating protocol,” company writes in its blog post.
Bluesky is powered by AT, originally called ADX, or Authenticated Transfer Protocol. The “AT Protocol” is a fast and open social network that incorporates the latest decentralized technologies. It is a federated network, which means that servers can communicate with each other like email allowing for multiple providers and the option for individuals and businesses to self-host.
