BlueSky Social Review: Features, Pros, Cons, & More!

At this point, you have surely heard of BlueSky Social, a budding alternative to X, formerly known as Twitter. It is a decentralized social network built on an open-source protocol.

And while BlueSky may be new to the social scene, it’s featuring plenty of promise. It has already reached one million users as of September 2023.

Are you wondering what it is exactly? How do you get started? Do you need to open a BlueSky account for your business? Don’t worry—we are here to help!

Here’s everything you need to know about this X alternative. So, let’s not waste any more time and dive into it.

BlueSky Social: A Comprehensive Rundown

BlueSky is a text-based, decentralized social network invented by Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter. It is basically a text-based microblogging platform, kind of like how Twitter used to work in its early days. Here, users can share text-based posts of up to 300 characters that are featured in feeds with other users’ posts.

BlueSky was started in 2019 when Dorsey was still Twitter’s CEO. It was supposed to grow with cooperation and funding from X. However, after Elon Musk took over, both entities cut ties.

BlueSky Social is completely free. However, signing up in the past was a challenge as you required a special invite code, and those had been in scarce supply. But in February 2024, BlueSky dismissed its invite-only status and is now available to anyone who wishes to join. But how do you sign up and use its services? Keep reading to learn about it completely.

At the beginning of July 2023, when Instagram’s Threads was introduced, BlueSky Social topped a million downloads across Android and iOS. Some remarkable figures like Chelsea Manning, Neil Gaiman, and Dril have migrated to BlueSky.

It is also home to journalists and news organizations like Engadget, Bloomberg, and The Washington Post. With BlueSky Social open to the public, it is clearly possible that other figures will soon move there.

How Does BlueSky Social Work?

BlueSky functions similarly to most text-based apps and social networks. At its core, you have a complete profile, follow other users, and begin a conversation. BlueSky is very much similar to Twitter. Here, you can click a Post symbol to write anything, including photos, and share 300 characters. Users can repost, reply, and like posts. Also, you can indicate your post’s language and highlight if any of your linked images are adult-only. 

However, BlueSky is different from its predecessors and some other social networking platforms in a few things, including:

1. Invite-only

The app was previously invite-only for the starters, meaning you must receive an invite code from other users to join. According to the BlueSky team, the app was invite-only for two reasons. First, because they wanted to limit the number of sign-ups from bots, spammers, and bad actors. This process helped BlueSky moderate and curate content as it scales.

Secondly, limiting sign-ups allows the platform to improve organically through existing personal networks, creating buzz for users who have not yet made the jump from Twitter to an alternative app.

However, Jack Dorsey’s social media platform, BlueSky Social, is no longer invite-only but open to everyone.

The company announced it through a blog post on February 6, 2024: “For the past year, we used invite codes to help us manage growth while we built features like moderation tooling, custom feeds, and more. Now, we’re ready for anyone to join.” 

2. Decentralization

BlueSky works on independent servers and is not controlled by a single company or server. This offers users better control over how they want the platform to work and how the content should be moderated.

BlueSky Social is also an open-source platform. This platform does this through an AT Protocol. BlueSky describes it as “a protocol for public conversation and an open-source framework for creating social apps, meaning individuals have transparency into how it is made and what is being designed.”

3. Custom Domains

BlueSky Social plans to be a zero-ad space in order to protect users’ data. However, the platform is also exploring several ways to monetize the platform. Also, its first service is domain management and purchasing. 

When you sign up for BlueSky, your username will look like this: @username.bsky.social. Through BlueSky’s partnership with Namecheap, you can easily customize your handle by purchasing a domain name. After purchasing a domain name, use it as your BlueSky Social handle. Additionally, you can move your domain name anywhere and have any URL directly linked to it. 

The custom domain feature may not be at the top of all social media manager’s lists when they think about their preferred platform. Still, it’s a suitable way to snag a custom domain if you don’t have one.

Aside from all these differences, BlueSky’s app will actually feel pretty familiar if you have used the X app. Its homepage looks and feels pretty identical to X (Twitter), with a navigation menu on the left, and the feed is in the middle.

There are three various feeds from which you can filter posts, including Discover, Following, and Popular with Friends. You can also customize what you can see in your feeds. This is another example of how BlueSky Social offers autonomy.

How To Get Started With BlueSky Social?

Are you wondering how to get started with BlueSky? Don’t worry—you will find everything you are looking for below. Follow the steps below to understand this app completely.

1. Use The BlueSky Website or App

BlueSky Social no longer requires a hard-to-get invitation code, making the sign-up procedure much easier. You just have to head to the website and click the button to Create a new account.

For the mobile route, download and install the BlueSky Social app from Google Play for Android or the App Store for iOS. Now, launch the app and then click on the Create a new account button.

2. Add Email Address

The next process is to add your email address. After that, create and type a password and then enter your date of birth.

3. Enter Phone Number

The next process will ask you to verify your account through text message. Confirm your country and enter your mobile phone number. Now, click the request code button.

4. Enter Code

You will receive a code that you have to enter on the next screen.

5. Build a User Handle

In the next screen, type and create a user handle. Your full handle on BlueSky Social will then be the name you create, followed by .bsky.social, as in @johnsmith.bsky.social.

6. Select Your Interests

The next screen will ask you to select your favourite interests. This will help BlueSky to direct you to accounts you might want to follow. Choose your interest and then click on continue.

7. Select Accounts To Follow

BlueSky shows a series of accounts that you might want to follow depending on your interest. Now, scan the list. If you want to follow all of them, click on the Follow All button at the bottom. Suppose you want to follow only specific ones, deselect the accounts that do not interest you and then click on Follow All. If you want to bypass them all, click on Skip.

8. Select Your Main Feeds

If you wish to see some additional feeds, then select those and click next.

9. Block or Allow Certain Content

Next, you can decide which type of content you want to block or allow. To see adult content, you can turn on that feature for that specific item. From there, you can choose to warn, hide, or display particular content, like nudity, spam, hate group iconography, and impersonated accounts. 

10. You are ready to go!

Click on the Let’s Go button to start your BlueSky Social journey.

Some additional things you can do on BlueSky:

• Access your BlueSky following feed.
• You can search for some more accounts which you can follow.
• Search for particular accounts to follow.
• Discover accounts and popular posts.
• View your feed and respond to posts.
• Moderating your feed.

How Can We Use BlueSky Social For Business?

If you are thinking of incorporating BlueSky Social into your brand’s social strategy, here are some ideas for how you can use this budding social media platform for your business.

1. Plan & Be a Thought Leadership

As with new platforms, there are several benefits of being an early adopter. One of those is being able to set the standard or tone for others to follow.

BlueSky is still very new, and there is no proven formula for creating attractive and engaging content yet. Many brands and people are still exploring and experimenting with the platform, often cross-posting content from Twitter. This also indicates that your business has a chance to create the rules of engagement on BlueSky Social.

You can use BlueSky’s platform to establish a robust point of view and position yourself as an initiator of ideas or go-to resources in your niche before anyone else does. As an early user of this platform, you can also set the tone for how other brands or businesses engage and share. 

BlueSky also provides an opportunity to plan your own user research. Before starting to share content, see how other users are interacting and the type of conversations they are initiating. Use your user research and create a different and unique brand position that meets those behaviours and needs.

2. Connect with The Press

X (Twitter) has long been a go-to source for breaking news or real-time updates. In particular, journalists have been relying on the platform to share source information updates or connect with likely subjects.

As the Twitter environment has made shifts, many media companies and journalists have flocked to both Mastodon and BlueSky as alternatives. 

For brands or businesses, this means you can easily use BlueSky Social to connect with the media for brand-building purposes or PR. Additionally, you can stay on top of industry news just as you were doing on X or other news sources.

BlueSky makes it easier to curate and find people from whom you want to see the content. It’s similar to Twitter, and you can develop custom feeds and add users to them to begin seeing their content. Additionally, you can add feeds that users have already created.

3. Create Or Reach Niche Communities

As an early adopter, you can also use BlueSky to find or create a niche community. Niche communities serve a particular industry, topic, or interest. Catering your content to a niche audience can allow you to reach people who are much more likely to engage with and be more interested in what your brand has to tell.

One example of a niche on BlueSky Social is an academic publishing house. University presses are a particular subset of the publishing industry. This means that they have a very particular audience of authors and those with some experience in the publishing industry.

The University of Minnesota Press has reached this niche audience by sharing a specific link to its recent job postings on BlueSky. This post gained quite a bit more reposts than the other publisher’s posts, suggesting that it was reaching the right audience.

4. Being Less Promotional

So far, BlueSky Social feels quite a lot less self-promotional than other notable platforms. It is largely due to the ad-free zone. Assuming that this platform will remain ad-free, it is a great idea for brands and businesses using BlueSky to focus more on starting conversations with the audience and less on promoting their business or brand.

Pros & Cons Of BlueSky Social:

BlueSky Social, a social networking platform introduced by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, has emerged as an alternative to the X app. It is now allowing every user to create an account and join the service. However, it has several advantages & disadvantages. Let us look at those below:

Advantages:

BlueSky offers a complete list of features, including:

• User control over content moderation and timelines: BlueSky Social highlights user autonomy, which allows you to dictate your feed and how content moderation is done. This ensures a more empowering and tailored user experience.

• Independent from larger entities: Despite past funding and ties to the X platform, BlueSky works independently, ensuring big corporations do not influence its decisions.

• Custom domains: Users can easily set a custom domain as their handle. It offers a personalized view and also borrows authority from well-known domain names. BlueSky also has integrated features allowing users to manage and purchase domains directly through the platform. It helps to enhance the user experience.

• Decentralized and Open-source: BlueSky Social works on an open-source model. It helps to promote community involvement and transparency.

• Account portability: One of Bluesky’s notable features is the AT Protocol. It permits the user to move their accounts to another social media website without losing their followers and data. This also fosters user freedom and reduces the risk of platform lock-in.

• Free and playful environment: The BlueSky Social platform provides a refreshing environment where potential users can share content without feeling like it must be specifically promotional.

• Flexibility in content moderation: Developers who run their servers can set content moderation policies, which allows for a more flexible approach to content regulation. BlueSky Social also comprises community labelling as part of its moderation process that helps to facilitate community involvement in content regulation.

Disadvantages: 

Let us now know about the disadvantages of BlueSky Social:

• Content moderation challenges: Multiple servers with varying moderation policies can direct to unstable user experiences and potential safe havens for destructive content.

• Monetization uncertainty: BlueSky Social’s exact plans for making money remain unclear. This uncertainty raises questions about its long-term sustainability and how it can affect user experience in the coming time. There is also an emerging concern that BlueSky may drift towards centralization as it evolves and grows.

• Twitter’s infrastructure dependency: Despite its freedom, BlueSky heavily relies on Twitter’s model, especially for its feature called “Birdwatch.” this dependency can create challenges in the future, especially if there are conflicts or disagreements between two platforms.

• Limited decentralization in practice: While Bluesky Social advertises itself as a decentralized platform, presently, BlueSky is one single site using the AT Protocol. This limits the actual potential and advantages of decentralization. Many users also question its actual intentions and criticize its non-profit nature. The users feel that the platform may not be genuinely committed to decentralization.

• Growing pains: As a relatively new platform, BlueSky Social is still ironing out operational and technical issues. As the platform evolves, users might experience downtime, bugs, or other challenges.

• Possibilities of echo chambers: The user’s ability to customize their moderation policies and content feeds can lead to the creation of echo chambers. Here, users can only interact with like-minded people. It also limits exposure to varying viewpoints.

How Does BlueSky Social Compare To Other X Alternatives?

As Twitter continues to evolve into an “All-in-one App,” it is a great idea to familiarize yourself with some alternatives so you can decide which text-based platform is best for you and your brand’s social strategy.

BlueSky vs Threads

Instagram’s Threads is also a text-based alternative to consider. It functions quite similar to X and all the other text-based apps.

The major difference between BlueSky Social and Threads is that Threads is connected directly to Instagram. This means that you must have an Instagram account if you want to make a presence on Threads. 

If you are looking for a more efficient experience or your brand already has a significant presence on Instagram, Threads can be convenient.

If you think your Instagram audience will enjoy text-based posts from you, then it is worth creating a Threads account. However, if you are looking for a decentralized text-based application to develop a new audience or user experience on, BlueSky may be a better fit. 

BlueSky vs Mastodon

One of the Twitter alternatives that is most similar to BlueSky Social is Mastodon. Like BlueSky, Mastodon is a decentralized platform and completely open-source. A non-profit organization operates Mastodon. However, because the platform is decentralized, there is no single “Owner” of this platform. It is made up of single servers. 

Mastodon completely relies on its servers and communities to self-govern. Every server can have its personal rules around moderation and content, which can get a bit tricky to keep up with.

If you are searching for a decentralized platform with total autonomy, Mastodon is worth trying. However, if you prefer a little extra structure with your decentralization, BlueSky will be a much better fit for now.

Are you still confused? Then, check out the feature comparison chart below.

Our Verdict: Is BlueSky Social Worth It?

It is quite early to tell if BlueSky Social will be a suitable alternative to well-established social platforms. Despite having more than 5 million subscribers, this number is quite low compared to Twitter’s 619 million monthly active users as of January 2024.

However, if you are tired of Twitter (X) but want a similar user experience, then the Bluesky app/website can be a great option, especially if it continues to evolve its user base. It is not the only Twitter alternative available, so it is worth looking into what is really on the market.

Also read our blog: How To Delete Instagram Account?

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