Bluesky, the decentralized social media platform conceptualized by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has now opened registration for everyone.
On Tuesday, the emerging X and Threads competitor said it was ending its invite-only system, which has managed to gain it over three million users since it debuted a year ago. The public benefit company, which has just under 40 full-time staff, has been busy building out its moderation features and achieving better stability during is closed beta period.
Users who install the Bluesky Social app or visit bsky.app will be able to sign up and join the conversation platform, which should look familiar to users of the old Twitter – a feed to which people can post messages up to 300 characters long as well as photos and video.
The difference with Bluesky is that its servers use a decentralized Authenticated Transport (AT) Protocol that will allow users to opt-in to a microblogging experience that isn't run by the company, allowing them to create an account under a given domain name and then use their profile in rival apps that use the same network.
Another advantage of the AT protocol is that it can operate based more on a user's preferences than algorithmically driven content, with user-curated feeds that people can use to find other users or topics, with customizable moderation tools also available to them.
AT will rival ActivityPub, the decentralized protocol powering Mastodon, and soon, Meta's Threads enabling interoperability between the two platforms. Later this month, Bluesky will also begin allowing outside developers to host their own servers on the AT Protocol and create their own rules.
In an interview with The Verge, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber said Bluesky's profit stream will eventually include charging users for additional features in its app, as well as taking a commission on purchases like custom feeds that developers will be able to sell as digital products.
The Bluesky Social app is a free download for iPhone and iPad available on the App Store [Direct Link].
