Elon Musk is riding on a high since Donald Trump won the US presidential elections. Musk believes that the social media platform he owns — X (formerly Twitter) — has become the de facto source of news and information. Yet, there is a significant number of users who are getting away from X because of a variety of reasons. In the last few days, Bluesky, a decentralised social media platform, is rapidly gaining attention as a potential alternative to X. However, Bluesky is still relatively niche and many may not know too much about it. So, here are five key things you should know about Bluesky:
A decentralised framework
Unlike traditional social media platforms — mainly Facebook and X — that centralise data on corporate-owned servers, Bluesky uses independent servers to store user data. “We’re creating a version of social media where it's built by many people, and it still comes together as a cohesive, easy-to-use experience,” says the social media platform on its official blog.
What’s the user experience like?
Bluesky's user experience is reminiscent of Twitter's early days but with a stronger emphasis on simplicity and user autonomy. Users can post short messages, photos, and videos, as well as send direct messages. Unlike X, which uses algorithmic feeds to display content, Bluesky limits visible posts to those from users' followed accounts — a big reason perhaps why people want an alternative to X.
How did Bluesky come about?
Bluesky was founded in 2019 by Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter. Initially an internal project at Twitter, Bluesky became an independent company in 2021, with software engineer Jay Graber serving as the current CEO.
Since its public launch in early 2024, Bluesky has seen significant growth, with over 13 million users as of November 2024. The platform has attracted a mix of users and in recent time many have left X due to dissatisfaction with its content moderation policies and political affiliation of Musk.
Where are most of the users on Bluesky coming from?
Bluesky says that it has millions of people from the United States, Brazil, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and more. In its initial days, Bluesky was an invite-only platform. However, now anyone can sign up to use the social media platform.
How different is it from X?
The look and feel might be same but there are quite a few differences. For example, Bluesky doesn’t allow users to make their profiles private. Also, unlike X which has some premium subscription plans, Bluesky remains completely free. As of now, there’s no two-factor authentication on Bluesky, which is very much present on X.
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