Bluesky opens its doors to all

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A year after its debut in private beta, the Bluesky application opens its doors to all, abandoning its invitation system. Its slogan: "Building a Social Internet".

Bluesky, the brainchild of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, is finally inviting everyone to join its ranks. This social network, a Twitter clone in many respects, is nonetheless unique. This opening to the general public marks an important milestone in Bluesky's development.

What is Bluesky?

Bluesky, was originally an internal Twitter project called "AT protocol". The project (which received $13 million in funding from Twitter) aimed to decentralize the social network. Bluesky became a separate company from Twitter, shortly before the takeover by Elon Musk in 2022.

For its first two years, the platform operated on an invitation-only basis. In other words, you had to know someone who had an account to obtain the famous Sesame. Why this choice? A desire on the part of those in charge to keep control of the platform and carefully manage its evolution, as its user base slowly grew to reach around 3 million. A user base that is set to soar now that anyone can register.

How does Bluesky work?

From a technological point of view, Bluesky is a relatively new concept. Indeed, while the social network looks and functions like X from the outset, the platform differs in what lies beneath the hood. Whereas Twitter's data is all stored centrally on its servers, the Bluesky application is decentralized and linked to other social media platforms. An interconnection made possible by the fact that Bluesky's code is entirely open source. Behind the technological jargon, understand that Bluesky is a "federated network" or a "galaxy of interconnected social networks". Publications on Bluesky can be searched, liked, shared... by users on other social platforms. A force multiplier of sorts. But the network is functional nonetheless: "The whole philosophy has been to have a good UX and focus on the user experience. People aren't just interested in decentralization. They're here to have fun and have a good time," says Bluesky CEO Jay Graber.

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The next steps in Bluesky's development

Bluesky has announced that it will be introducing an experimental version of the "federation" shortly. Developers will be able to create their own separate servers, just as Mastodon has thousands of different instances. Users, meanwhile, will be able to choose which server to use, and if they change their mind, they'll be able to migrate to another server without losing all their publications, subscribers and follow lists. Another forthcoming update will enable users to create their own content moderation services, to which other users can subscribe. "For example, a fact-checking organization will be able to run a tagging service and mark posts as "partially false" or "misleading". Users who trust this organization will be able to subscribe to their labels. An operation that will make all labels published by the organization on the app visible to the user." can be read on the Bluesky blog.

Why should companies be interested in Bluesky?

If only because Meta's Threads was one of the most downloaded applications last year. To date, the app boasts 130 million users. Many brands looking to leave Twitter have been quick to adopt it as an alternative social platform to X. Bluesky may well follow suit. In just 24 hours, the platform had already attracted over a million new users.

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