Bluesky is the baby of the social media landscape. By the number of users alone, Buesky has 31.9 million users, according to Bluesky Counter, compared to 650 million users for X. Yet, in many ways, the social media platform is proving to be a resilient disruptor. The text-based platform has created a niche for itself as a haven for users seeking a decentralized platform offering authentic, unfiltered interactions free from algorithmically surfaced content. The platform’s refreshing approach has made it particularly attractive to users fleeing from X, formerly Twitter, and love Bluesky’s nostalgic model, the communities being built there and the personal expression that is available there. 

Bluesky’s Origins 

Bluesky began as a project in 2019, in the wake of Donald Trump’s ban from Twitter. Twitter’s founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey, expressed dissatisfaction about the decision, because he felt that users should have more control over their feed and who they interact with. Bluesky was Twitter’s attempt to create a decentralised model and by 2021, it was spun off as an independent company. The stated goal was to create a platform where decisions such as content moderation, and who is part of a community, are decided by the relevant communities, and not by a centralised authority. Analogous to this is Bitcoin, which lacks a central bank, and whose economic activities are managed and regulated by its users. Part of the growing dissatisfaction that users felt had to do with how their feed seemed to be determined by algorithms and not by the communities they were in. Additionally, the plethora of ads that users came across, made for an ugly and commercialised user experience. 

Bluesky was eventually launched to the public on February 6, 2024, 18 months after Elon Musk bought Twitter and rebranded it as X. Originally, people were only allowed to sign up through an invitation, but soon after, they were allowed to sign up through more conventional means. Blueksy almost seemed like a rebuke to X at the time, which was facing criticism over its content moderation, and usability because it had become so easy to buy X followers. Bluesky appeared to be a safe haven to users seeking an experience from the early days of the internet.  When it first launched, it had about one million users and now it has over 31.8 million. 

The Revolt Against Algorithmically Surfaced Content

Ben Thompson, the tech and media analyst, wrote about the rise of algorithmically surfaced content as opposed to chronologically surfaced content, noting that platforms such as Twitter and Instagram had bet that by offering users the best algorithmically surfaced content from the entire universe of content would provide a better experience than limiting content to what one’s community created. For platforms such as Instagram, the bet paid off, but the story was more complicated for Twitter, with many users seeking an alternative. 

Source: Stratecherry

Similarities to X

Users can add someone’s posts to their feed simply by following that person, and also directly message other users. Like X, there is a 300-character limit for posts and the user can upload as much as four images at a go. This makes it easy to make the transition from X to Bluesky. Users are also encouraged to create threads for longer conversations. Videos can be uploaded so long as they are not more than 60s long and only one video can be posted at a time. Audio can also be uploaded. Users are allowed to have as many as eight hashtags per post and posts can of course be reposted. 

Conclusion

Bluesky signals a shift in text-based platforms away from centralised control, whether in terms of content moderation or in terms of how user feeds are populated. The user is back in control and commercialization is in the back seat. It’s not clear if Bluesky can dethrone X, but it has been a home for many users who love what it offers.