Bluesky: How An App That Wants To Surpass Twitter Works

Bluesky is the new social network created by Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter. Access is currently only available by invitation. However, the app’s ambitions already seem clear: to surpass Twitter. Bluesky, the app is making a lot of noise, as it could be a valid alternative to the social media now controlled by Elon Musk. Bluesky is yet to be available for the general public. It is, in fact, still in beta.

Therefore, it is not in its final state. Despite this, it has about 375,000 downloads from the App Store, about 40,000 users and 1.2 million on a waiting list ready to try it. Especially in the United States, it has attracted much attention: some politicians, athletes and influencers have signed up and are using it. Bluesky has been around for a long time, around 2019. However, Dorsey had yet to have the chance to publicize it before, as he was still the CEO of Twitter at the time of its creation. The description must have appealed to its listeners as it quickly attracted an estimated $13 million investment.

How Bluesky Works, New Social Media

Currently, Bluesky is available (only) on the Apple Store. However, to access it, you need an invitation from a user who is already registered. Therefore, trying it takes work. Fortunately, various opinions and images of the platform are circulating online, allowing us to understand more. The app looks very similar to Twitter, especially regarding layout. As in the app that chirps, you can write short posts, attach any images, follow other users, get followed and monitor your feed. Currently, the hashtags are not yet available. There is also the possibility of finding new users to follow through the ” discover ” function rather than exchanging private messages.

Bluesky Or Twitter: Which Is Better?

Despite many similarities, answering whether Bluesky is better or worse than Twitter is challenging. Looking at them in detail, many differences emerge, the most important having to do with the protocol on which they are based: while Twitter is a social network that manages data centrally, Bluesky instead has implemented a decentralized solution. In this case, a decentralized solution means that the data is not held in a server controlled by the company but by a set of federated networks of different users.

Dorsey has been working on this solution for a long time. Its name is Authenticated Transfer Protocol, or « AT Protocol ». According to the entrepreneur, this will enable the creation of a ” federated and decentralized ” social network. Furthermore, as stated in the post, users can customize the algorithm that manages the flow of news that appears in the home section. Together with the other company members, it has caught a bad mood that hovers in the Twitter community due to the many (too many?) advertisements, bots, and in general, the management of Elon Musk, which Dorsey himself has definite negatives.

Bluesky isn’t the first decentralized microblogging platform to try and serve the needs of those disillusioned with Twitter. Months ago, for example, an app called Mastodon, also based on a decentralized protocol, became very popular and used. However, Mastodon has yet to be able to replace Twitter, which is still very popular despite the discontent. We’ll see if Bluesky will succeed in this arduous undertaking once it becomes public and available.

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