Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s brainchild, Bluesky, ditches its invite system, welcoming everyone to its decentralized social media platform.
As of Tuesday, Bluesky, the microblogging competitor to Twitter and Threads, has opened its doors to all. This means anyone can now sign up and join the platform, which boasts over 3 million users since its invite-only beta launch a year ago.
While the familiar feed for 300-character posts, photos, and videos might remind you of classic Twitter, Bluesky’s core is different. It runs on a decentralized network called the Authenticated Transport (AT) Protocol. This allows users to:
- Choose their experience: Opt-in to microblogging not controlled by Bluesky itself. Create an account using your own domain name and use your profile across other apps built on the same network.
- Personalize their feed: Ditch algorithmic content and curate your feed based on your preferences.Find users and topics you’re interested in, and utilize customizable moderation tools.
AT joins the fight against ActivityPub, the protocol powering Mastodon, and Meta’s upcoming Threads. This opens the door for interoperability between platforms. Later this month, Bluesky even opens its network to developers, allowing them to host their own servers and set their own rules.
Download the free app for iPhone and iPad from the App Store and give it a go.
UPDATE: 8/2/24
Bluesky is skyrocketing after opening its doors to everyone. Just one day in, over 850,000 users have flocked to the platform, pushing its total sign-ups to a staggering 4.1 million.
This surge suggests there’s still major buzz around the Jack Dorsey-backed platform, born as a Twitter project in 2019. It also shows Meta doesn’t have the text-based alternative market sewn up – their Threads app sits at 130 million monthly users.
However, Bluesky aimed for slower growth to build its platform and protocol organically. The sudden influx led to minor hiccups, including custom feed issues and a brief outage. The company claims it was resolved within hours.
