SEATTLE – Bluesky, the open social network, unlocks its doors today. Since its 2023 app launch, Bluesky has grown to more than 3M users through an invite-only beta. Over the last year, Bluesky has developed custom feeds, custom moderation features, and more, creating a place where anyone can contribute. Now, Bluesky is ready for everyone to join the conversation.
New users are welcomed with a “plug-and-play” experience that is as customizable as they want it to be, no technical knowledge required. As an open-source platform, Bluesky allows anyone to contribute features they want; current highlights include video and music embeds for YouTube and Spotify, and more than 25,000 custom feeds that users can choose from to see the content they want - from cat memes, to Formula1, to house plant maintenance, to Taylor Swift…the list goes on. If someone can imagine it and wants to build a community, they can build their own feed on Bluesky.
“We made Bluesky so users can easily discover interesting content from a vibrant network of communities,” said Jay Graber, CEO of Bluesky. “During our beta period we used an invite system to manage growth while building out our infrastructure, and were happy to see people start creating their own community on Bluesky. Now, we’re welcoming everyone in.”
Creating a New Social Media Experience
Bluesky is creating the AT Protocol, an open-source foundation for building a network of interconnected social apps. What makes this special for users is a whole new ability to freely move their personal accounts between the apps that are built on the federated network. People can now keep their friends, relationships, feeds, and content when changing from app to app – no need to start a new account from scratch whenever they want to join a new AT Protocol-based social network.
Federation Coming Soon
Bluesky will roll out an experimental version of open federation later this month, which means developers will be able to self-host a server that connects to the main production network. This is the feature that allows Bluesky users to have control over their social identity, regardless of who their provider is. Users will always have the freedom to choose (and to exit) instead of being held to the whims of private companies or black box algorithms.
Prioritizing Safety
Bluesky’s goal is to create a space that supports open conversation. To ensure an open, safe, and desirable experience for people using the app, Bluesky follows sensible defaults and offers lists, mutes, and blocks as stackable guardrails that anyone can customize to filter out what they don’t want to see.
