Is Bluesky the one? A Twitter alternative is taking off.

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By Webdesk


Being a centrist political pundit rationed(opens in a new tab) the moment he arrives. Conversation(opens in a new tab) that would cause people who overuse the word “wake” to foam at the mouth. A CEO beg(opens in a new tab) users not to call posts on the platform “skeets”. Users continue to refer to said posts as “skeets”. Oh, and @dril and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are here now too.

As one Bluesky user put it, it appears(opens in a new tab) Bluesky has the “juice.”

Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with Bluesky. Almost everyone was unaware of the platform before yesterday as well. So, what is Bluesky?

What is Bluesky?

Bluesky is a “decentralized” social media platform backed by former Twitter CEO and founder Jack Dorsey. It is led by CEO Jay Graber, who was chosen by pre-Musk Twitter, at least in part thanks to her background as a crypto developer, according to CoinDesk(opens in a new tab). It was meant to function a bit like Mastodon, another Twitter alternative, with its federated universe of individual servers for users to traverse. But Bluesky is very new, and those community divides ended up working against Mastodon – because many users found them confusing(opens in a new tab) – are in principle not yet built.

ALSO SEE:

Bluesky, Jack Dorsey’s decentralized Twitter killer, is now on Android

What we’re left with is a barebones “microblogging” app that is very reminiscent of the early days of Twitter. It looks like old Twitter from the UI, and from yesterday, right down to the low stakes fun posts. Short, funny messages currently predominate in the app.

You can’t DM anyone on Bluesky. There is no video functionality. Users can’t even upload a GIF.

Users have 300 characters per post (I’m sorry, I mean per “skeet”) and can post non-moving images. That is it. How do you find content? There is a following feed filled with chronological posts from the users you follow. And there’s a “What’s Hot” feed, which appears to chronologically show posts on the platform that receive a lot of “reposts” and “likes”, regardless of whether you follow the user or not.

There are no NFT profile pictures. There are no verification badges with a blue checkmark, even if you have $8 left. Hell, I can’t even figure out where to change my password, if that’s even possible to begin with.

Can I get on Bluesky?

Bluesky is currently invitation only. Two weeks ago I received an invitation and created my account. At the time, the platform was pretty boring. The user base was almost entirely techies: obnoxious Web3 guys who championed blockchain and good developers who spoke honestly about their profession. That’s okay, I guess, but that’s not Twitter. I thought Bluesky would go the way of these other Twitter alternatives: fine as a niche community, but no, it won’t take Twitter’s place.

Will Bluesky become the Twitter killer?

But then something happened from Wednesday evening to Thursday. It seems that some Bluesky invite codes just happened to end up in the right hands: funny Twitter shitposters.

Ever since Elon Musk first took over Twitter, many users have longed for a place to go that is free of Musk and his way of running a social media site. Every decision Musk made would have factored into the platform’s demotion, but probably the most shocking change was the prioritization of people paying $8 for Twitter Blue. Their posts are now everywhere, populating the For You feed and being pushed to the very top of replies to a tweet’s reply thread.

Bluesky was just the right app, in the right place, at the right time.

Now it is still very early. A good day doesn’t make a platform. The fact that Bluesky has been trending on Twitter all day doesn’t mean Twitter has anything to worry about, although Platformer’s Zoe Schiffer reported(opens in a new tab) that Bluesky was a hot topic in private Twitter chats.

What are Bluesky’s weaknesses?

Bluesky can still screw it all up. For example, the platform’s currently invite-only status can be a blessing or kill it. If you bring in new people too quickly, you might bring in too many unwanted people who ruined Twitter too quickly. Bring in new people too slowly, good users will lose interest because it just took too long to get that invite. And let’s not forget they still want to do that whole “decentralized” thing that most normal people find confusing.

If Bluesky does end up taking a bite out of Twitter’s market share, that would be really funny, since Twitter did indeed give Bluesky a good chunk of its initial funding. Before Musk took over, Twitter and Bluesky had a partnership, and when Musk came on the scene after spending $44 billion to acquire Twitter, that partnership ended.

But not for Bluesky received(opens in a new tab) $13 million from its now-rival to create what it has so far. That’s a fun fact that will make for some good skeetable content.





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