Bluesky is outlining its priorities for 2026 with a roadmap that aims to refine the platform’s core experience while adding features designed to keep users engaged in real time. The decentralized social network says its focus for the year ahead will include improving the algorithmic Discover feed, offering stronger recommendations on who to follow, and making the app feel more responsive during live events. At the same time, the company has acknowledged that several foundational features still lag behind expectations.
Launched publicly in early 2024 after a lengthy invite-only phase, Bluesky has grown to more than 42 million users, based on data drawn from its own developer API. Much of that growth has been driven by interest in its alternative approach to social media, including customizable feeds and user-configurable algorithms. However, scale alone has not translated into consistent engagement. Usage data cited by Similarweb and reported by Forbes showed a 40% year-over-year decline in daily active users as of October 2025, underscoring the challenges the platform faces in retaining attention.
In a recent post on the company’s website, head of product Alex Benzer said Bluesky needs to “get the basics right” before expecting long-term loyalty. That includes long-requested features such as drafts, better media handling in the composer, faster uploads, support for longer videos, and the ability to post more than four photos at a time. Threads, he added, should also be easier to create. Notably absent from near-term plans are private accounts, which Bluesky has previously said will require deeper changes to its underlying protocol and are unlikely to arrive soon.
Beyond these essentials, the company is putting renewed emphasis on discovery. Planned updates to the Discover feed may introduce topic tags to help users surface posts aligned with their interests, while improved “who to follow” recommendations are meant to make it easier to find relevant, high-quality accounts. These changes are framed as incremental, but necessary, steps toward a more usable and less overwhelming feed.
Another theme of the 2026 roadmap is real-time relevance. Benzer argued that Bluesky should feel more alive during moments like sports events or elections. To that end, the team is developing internal curation tools that would allow staff to assemble timely custom feeds around live events. Additional feed features are being explored to make participation feel more communal and less like passive scrolling, though specifics remain vague.
Interoperability across the broader ecosystem built on the same protocol, often referred to by the community as the “Atmosphere,” is also part of the plan. For example, users who stream on platforms like Twitch can already display a LIVE badge on their Bluesky profile, and similar integrations are expected to follow.
All of this unfolds against a competitive backdrop where alternatives continue to advance quickly. Meta’s Threads has emerged as a strong rival to X, benefiting from extensive resources, aggressive feature development, and seamless onboarding. Threads now reportedly surpasses X in daily mobile users, highlighting the pressure on Bluesky to balance its decentralized vision with practical improvements that keep pace with better-funded competitors. The coming year will test whether refining fundamentals and discovery tools is enough to stabilize usage and define Bluesky’s role in an increasingly crowded social media landscape.
