What Is Bluesky Social and How Do You Join?

What happened when Jack Dorsey, the former CEO and founder of X (formerly known as Twitter) had to let go of his company? He launched a rival alternative solution to the well-known app. Bluesky Social is a social media app that is eyed by many as people are waiting to get into its exclusive list of invitees. With over 1M users boasting on the hyped social media app, we need to share what exactly this platform is about.

What is Bluesky Social?

Bluesky Social is a text-based social network platform that allows user to type up to 300-word messages in their feed. Much like Twitter, Bluesky features a newsfeed where users can view and engage with these posted messages. The platform is accessible on both iOS and Android devices.

Prior to Elon Musk’s somewhat reluctant acquisition of Twitter, the former CEO, Jack Dorsey, took the initiative to provide funding for and subsequently spun off Bluesky. Bluesky, established as a public benefit company, was assigned the mission of developing an open-source, decentralized social media protocol.

Dorsey’s ultimate vision was for Twitter to adopt this protocol. Bluesky initially maintained an invite-only access policy but has recently begun welcoming a broader user base.

The functionality of the platform resembles Twitter by allowing text and image posts with interactions like comments, likes, and reposts. The unique aspect is its decentralized nature, though this feature isn’t fully functional yet due to testing. Users who post on the bluesky socials are called “skeets” (which sounds merging of two words – “sky” and “tweets).

Bluesky stands out by defaulting to a chronological feed, allowing users to switch to an algorithm-based feed if they prefer. However, it falls short in terms of realizing its decentralized vision because it lacks fundamental tools such as the ability to export user data.

Moreover, some promised features, like a marketplace for various feed algorithms, have yet to be implemented. While the company has outlined its approach to content moderation, it’s important to note that Bluesky is still in its early stages of development.

How to Join Bluesky Social?

You can easily join the Bluesky platform by receiving an invitation from an existing user involved in securing code. With the invite code, you can sign up through the mobile app or the website. To create an account there are some steps for registration to use the app:

STEP 1: Go to Bluesky Social and click “Create a New Account”. Select Bluesky as default when asked for hosting provider and click on next.

STEP 2: Now, Enter your invite code, email address, password and date of birth then click on next.

STEP 3: Now type the name you want use as user name, by using ‘@’ yourname and then it displays as your full handle will be @yourname.bsky.social, and then click on next.

STEP 4: You will be now redirected to the main page of the app .It displays Following, Discover, Popular with friends at the top and search bar at the top right. Also, displays some of the features like Home, Search, My Feeds, Notifications, Moderation, Profile and settings on the left side.

STEP 5: Select the accounts that you want to follow using search bar.

STEP 6: You can add posts and can view the posts and followers in the “Following”. To respond a post there are so many ways. You can tap on ‘Reply’ to reply a post . You can also translate the post,copy post text,share, Mute thread, and Report post.

STEP 7: To submit a post, click on the ‘Post’ icon on the top-right and then select a photo, type the text to post.

You can also create an Alt tag for an image and also add links to your post by copying the link from its source and pasting it in your post.

Who is the Owner of Bluesky App?

Bluesky’s board of directors includes Dorsey and Jeremie Miller, the creator of the free instant messaging service Jabber from the late 1990s.

Leading the helm as CEO is Jay Graber, known for founding the events-focused social media platform Happening and having prior experience as a software engineer on the cryptocurrency Zcash, as stated on her LinkedIn profile. Jay Graber also holds a position on the board.

Ownership of the company is shared between Graber and the broader Bluesky team, as stated on the Bluesky website.

How to Get a Bluesky Social Invite?

To join Bluesky Social, you need a special invitation code. It’s not easy to get a seat in the Bluesky Social domain as you require an existing user to invite you in the sphere or you can just wait by clicking the “Waitlist” button. Given its origin Twitter, Bluesky is not much different and the UI/UX is completely clone off from Twitter. So, if you are getting frustrated at waiting for a invite, you can continue using Twitter till Bluesky launches for Open to All.