In the wake of the US election, millions of users have been joining Bluesky every day. A decentralized rival to X (formerly Twitter), the platform now has more than 20 million users. According to data from Similarweb, daily usage grew by more than 500% after the election.
In a recent interview with NPR, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber said the network had been “growing by about a million users a day”. That surge can be attributed in large part to the dissatisfaction of countless X (formerly Twitter) users.
It’s been two years since Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion and rebranded it as X. A number of controversial policy changes in that time – including the decision to allow companies to train their AI models on users’ posts – have triggered a mass exodus to pastures new.
While it still has a way to go to compete with the 275 million active monthly users on Threads, Bluesky has won big off the back of the US presidential election.
That being said, not everyone has heard of Bluesky. If the name’s new to you, we’ve pulled together all the answers here – including what makes Bluesky different and how you can switch over from X.
What is Bluesky?
Bluesky is a social media platform which began life as Twitter project, created when Jack Dorsey was CEO in 2019. It then became a separate company in 2021. Bluesky’s majority owner is now CEO, Jay Graber.
Bluesky’s main differentiator is that it’s open and decentralized. It’s built on the AT protocol, an open-source framework which creates a standard format for “user identity, follows, and data on social apps”.
The original idea was that this standard would be adopted by Twitter. Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform put paid to that plan, leading to Bluesky to branch out as an independent social app.
TL;DR – What is Bluesky?
Bluesky is a social network that was inspired by Twitter, but works in a different way. Rather than being centralized, it’s open and decentralized – which means no single company controls it.
Bluesky also gives account holders a lot more control over the moderation of content on their own feeds. Users have the ability to choose the algorithm that drives their experience on the platform, with the option to create custom feeds for different topics or interests.
Users initially had to be invited to join Bluesky, but accounts became publicly available in February. Interestingly, Bluesky allows users to have website URLs as handles, which has the potential to serve as a verification tool.
Bluesky vs Twitter: what are the main differences?
Bluesky’s interface is visually very similar to X. There’s a vertical feed featuring posts that you can reply to, retweet and like. You can also create posts of up to 256 characters. Likewise, profiles on Bluesky borrow heavily from the platform’s Twitter roots.
As mentioned above, one of Bluesky’s biggest selling points is that it’s decentralized. It’s essentially a protocol that can be used to create content feeds, meaning it would be hard for a single person or company to control. In contrast, X centralizes data processing and content moderation, taking it out of the hands of users.
The other key difference is the degree of control given to individual users. This manifests in the way that content is pushed to your feed. On X, users can choose between the “For you” and “Following” feeds, but they have no influence over the algorithm that drives content to those feeds.
Bluesky vs Twitter: key differences
Bluesky: decentralized, user-controlled, customizable feeds, user owns their data.
Twitter: centralized, feeds controlled by X, data locked into X with little portability.
In contrast, Bluesky lets you choose how you want to filter content. By default, there are two feeds on Bluesky: one for accounts you follow and a Discover feed, which shows a bespoke feed of trending content based on your interests and network.
But Bluesky goes further, giving you algorithmic choice by allowing you to create your own custom feeds. While some knowledge of the AT protocol is required to create custom feeds, Bluesky sees this as the future of the platform, with “an open marketplace of feeds” giving users access to content in whatever way they want. Graber claims that more than 50,000 feeds are currently available, catering to all kinds interests and themes.
As Bluesky continues to gain more users, the number of custom feeds available will increase.
While its current user count of 20 million pales in comparison to the 500 million monthly active users that X claims to have, its rapid growth is only likely to result in the greater availability of niche feeds. This reflects the user experience on Bluesky, which is centered around building close communities from the ground up, based on specific shared interests.
One of the key factors driving users away from X has been the platform’s move towards deregulation, including changes which allow blocked users to still view your posts and profile. In contrast, Bluesky has a traditional block feature, as well as a number of “anti-toxicity” features designed to actively combat harassment. These include the option to detach your original post from someone else’s quote post, giving you control over threads started by you.
Reflecting its decentralized approach, Bluesky does not run adverts, nor does it harvest user data to train generative AI models – unlike X, which does both.
Bluesky vs Threads: what are the main differences?
Like Bluesky, Threads is a relatively new microblogging platform born out of the recent controversies surrounding Twitter/X. Developed and owned by Meta, users can sign in to Threads using their Instagram account details. Because of this integration, it grew rapidly to now boast an active monthly user count north of 275 million.
Visually, Threads has a stripped-back user interface with an aesthetic very similar to Instagram. That close integration makes it easy to find and follow friends, but Threads has also struggled with wider community engagement.
That’s something it’s trying to address with new features. Inspired by Bluesky, Threads is rolling out support for custom feeds based on topics. These are easy to create: you search for a topic, tap the three dots next to the search bar and select “Create new feed.” You can also add individual accounts to custom feeds, giving you additional flexibility to curate the content you see.
To further foster a sense of community, Threads has also tweaked its algorithm to show users more posts from the people they follow. This “rebalancing” should mean that the “For you” feed shows more content that you care about.
How substantively this will change the feel of Threads remains to be seen, but the speed of the response from Meta is an indication of the impact that Bluesky’s open approach is having.
How to switch from X
To join Bluesky, all you need to do is set up an account with your email address. You can do this online at bsky.app or by downloading the app from the App Store or Google Play Store. Signing up is straightforward.
Migrating an X account over to Bluesky is a little trickier. We’ve written a feature on how to switch from Bluesky to X. There’s no official method to make this happen, but there is a workaround.
Sky Follower Bridge is an extension that’s available for Chrome and Firefox. It allows new Bluesky users to find users who they previously followed (and were followed by) on X.
To use it, you’ll need to add the extension, run it while signed in to Bluesky, then head to X. Head to your Following or Followers page and the extension will scrape the information to give you a list of matched Bluesky accounts.
It’s worth bearing in mind that X is taking steps to prevent screen scraping, so there’s no guarantee how long Sky Follower Bridge will be functional for.
Bluesky private accounts: is it possible to have one?
One thing to bear in mind before joining Bluesky is that there is currently no way to have a private profile.
Bluesky describes itself as a “public social network”, with the AT Protocol “designed to support public conversations”. That means anyone on the web can see them, including your posts and likes. Bluesky says to treat your posts as blog posts.
As a result, you can’t lock your profile. If you want a private profile, you’ll need to stick with X and protect your posts, or sign up for a private profile on Threads.
Leave a comment