A new social network developed by co-founder and former CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey, Bluesky is going through a test phase with the public with the app’s arrival on iOS and Android systems and the gradual release of invitations for new users to enter.
Bluesky’s project emerged in December 2019, with an announcement by Jack Dorsey still within the Twitter. The novelty concerned the formation of a work team to develop an open, decentralized and scalable system to meet the demands of the new scenario of social networks.
Bluesky’s solution
The then CEO of Twitter was aware of the difficulty of combating the spread of misinformation and hate speech on the social network and directed the company towards a solution based on decentralized communities and better content recommendation algorithms – for more healthy conversations and less controversy.
According to Dorsey, the development of new technologies with decentralized hosting and governance solutions, such as blockchain, provided clues on how to resolve these issues on social platforms.
The project first took shape under the management of Parag Agrawal, who succeeded Jack Dorsey at Twitter. As early as 2021, Bluesky became a platform independent, as a public interest entity, and came under the leadership of software engineer and current CEO Jay Graber.
Bluesky, which now reaches the public, presents itself as an open and decentralized communication platform that allows the connection between people and different social networks, allocated on several servers and without depending on the control of a single company.
In addition, the platform has open source code as a way to allow other developers to create new solutions and applications from it.
New protocol and server decentralization
The main difference between Bluesky and Twitter is the use of the AT Protocol (Autheticated Transport Protocol), a new protocol that allows communication between different social networks and creates a federated universe of individual servers.
The AT Protocol works in a similar way to the ActivityPub protocol, which powers Mastodon, and has attracted interest from other networks, such as Flipboard and Tumblr.
In practice, the AT Protocol offers more security and privacy for users and allows each person to create their own network or transfer their accounts to other platforms — as long as they are built with the same protocol — without losing their data. By comparison, all Twitter posts and interactions happen within Elon Musk’s own company servers.
Bluesky vs Twitter: interface and features
In terms of visuals and usability, Bluesky’s interface is very similar to that of Twitter, and users of the blue bird network should feel very familiar with the new platform.
The proposal is also the publication of short posts, but with more limited resources: at Bluesky it is not (yet) possible to publish videos, audios and moving images (GIFs), only static images and external link attachments.
Posts can be up to 300 characters long on Bluesky, and users have the same options as Twitter to like, comment, or repost (retweet). The posts are presented in two timelines: an algorithmic one (“What’s Hot”) and another of the profiles you follow (“Following”).
The application’s graphical interface is still in English, but publications can be made in any language.
In the bottom bar of the Bluesky app, there are access buttons for homepage, search, notifications and profile. The new network does not have, at least initially, the option of sending direct messages (DMs) between users.
Other Twitter features not yet present in Bluesky include: lists, spaces, Twitter wheel, threads and saved items. The new network’s personal profile page also has few configuration options at first — limited to name, photo and brief description.
To test Jack Dorsey’s new social platform, you must receive an invitation (invite code) from a user registered with Bluesky or through the application’s official waiting list. Access to the network can only be carried out through apps on mobile devices and is not available through the website.
