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Jack Dorsey-Backed Twitter Alternative Bluesky Hits the App Store As An Invite-Only App (techcrunch.com) 89

Bluesky, the Twitter alternative backed by Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, has hit the App Store and more testers are gaining access. Though the app is still only available as an invite-only beta, its App Store arrival signals that a public launch could be nearing. TechCrunch reports: We haven't heard much from Bluesky since October 2022, when the team behind the project shared an update on the Bluesky blog, detailing the status of the social protocol that powers its new Twitter-like app, also called Bluesky. AT (originally called ADX, or "Authenticated Transfer Protocol,") is Bluesky's main effort while the Bluesky mobile app serves to showcase the protocol in action. [...]

We received an invite to the service and found it to be a functional, if still rather bare-bones, Twitter-like experience. Users create a handle which is then represented as @username.bsky.social as well as the display name that appears more prominently in bold text, as on Twitter. As a brand-new app, Bluesky's suggested user list didn't immediately impress with big names of public figures during onboarding. The app itself presents a simplified user interface where you can click a plus button to create a post of 256 characters, which can include photos. Where Twitter asks "What's happening?," Bluesky asks "What's up?" You can search for and follow other individuals, much like on Twitter, then view their updates in a Home timeline. User profiles contain the same sort of features you'd expect: a profile pic, background, bio and metrics, like the number of followers and posts a user has, as well as how many people they're following. Profile feeds are also divided into two sections, like Twitter: posts and posts & replies.

Bluesky users can share, mute and block accounts, but advanced tools, like adding them to lists, are not yet available. The discover tab in the bottom center of the app's navigation is useful, offering more "who to follow" suggestions and a running feed of recently posted Bluesky updates. The latter gives you the opportunity to find more people who you might like to follow, based on their posts rather than just a bio. Posts themselves can be replied to, retweeted, liked and, from a three-dot menu, reported, shared via the iOS Share Sheet to other apps, or copied as text. Another tab lets you check on your Notifications, including likes, reposts, follows and replies, also much like Twitter. There are no DMs.
You can download the app here, but you're still going to need an invite code.
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Jack Dorsey-Backed Twitter Alternative Bluesky Hits the App Store As An Invite-Only App

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  • by Errol backfiring ( 1280012 ) on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @05:15AM (#63332301) Journal
    Is there ActivityPub support? Or is it just a walled garden like twitter?
    • Naturally it uses its own protocol. Might be possible to make a gateway though.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by dbialac ( 320955 )
      And will it take off the way Truth Social or Mastodon have?
  • ... Twitter a protocol", as he stated a year or two ago?
    Which is - obviously - what should've happened.

    Or has Dorsey just recently noticed that he isn't just quite rich enough yet?

    • by kubajz ( 964091 ) on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @05:38AM (#63332313)
      From their blog [blueskyweb.xyz]: "Bluesky’s mission is to drive the evolution from platforms to protocols. The conceptual framework we've adopted for meeting this objective is the "self-authenticating protocol.""
      • Has there been any comment here from the mastodon people? Seems to me that, if it's a proper protocol, an integration could be built almost no matter what either side things and that making a bridge between the two would be a really good start.

        Just to be a good^Wbad Slashdotter I went away and actually googled here's Bluesky's [gitlab.com] own ecosystem overview. There are also some useful comparisons [substack.com].

      • Is this code for decentralization? If so I expect is to be about as successful as crypto. Bitcoin can't handle 100 tx/sec, let's see a decentralized platform do thousands of tx/sec.
        • To give some reference for what a meaningful number of financial transactions a second is: IBM's latest Telium chip is capable of handling around 15000 tx/sec per chip. With realtime fraud detection on every one of them.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by nomadic ( 141991 )

      Well he left a lot of his shares of Twitter in the company when Musk took over, so he's probably realizing at this point that Elon Musk is amazingly incompetent and will probably tank the company in a way that renders his share worthless.

    • Money, you think this about money?
  • by zenlessyank ( 748553 ) on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @06:08AM (#63332333)

    Guess no one is going to show up.

  • Grate n00z! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @06:10AM (#63332335)

    We only hear about it because there's a "big name" attached.

    Lesson: Want your "app" to succeed, make sure you get someone's "big name" to wave around. Of course, you can only do that for a price. Thus, the "big names" get richer just for having a "big name".

    So much for the egalitarian intertubes.

  • 1. You cannot combine real, verified identities with legions of anons without trolling mayhem.

    2. The retweet without quote is designed to amplify often the worst messages on the platform, with no context, causing all sorts of things that shouldn't be amplified to be cheaply amplified.

    If it doesn't address those issues, it's going to be somewhere between Twitter and Gab and by that I mean "rancid shithole that selectively tolerates ToS violations" and "free speech within the law maximalism with equal opportu

  • Today I loaded up Twitter and all I see under following is

    "Welcome to Twitter!
    This is the best place to see whatâ(TM)s happening in your world. Find some people and topics to follow now."

    So I checked, and yes, I'm still following 68 people.

    Good work, Elon Cusk

  • by Anonymous Coward

    We received an invite to the service and found it to be a functional, if still rather bare-bones, Twitter-like experience

    Wow, so many words in the summary and none that describe the reason/motivation for BlueSky to exist.

    Hint: its about philosophy, decentralization, open standards, not about tweaking some twitter UI knobs.

  • ... to them briefly becoming the #1 downloaded app.

    Just don't say anything (or let anybody on your site say anything) that your hosting provider doesn't like [nytimes.com], lol!

  • Or in other words, twitter.
  • TFA was written by someone completely tone-deaf. Not only in an echo chamber, but totally oblivious to that fact.

    How do I know? Just notice that TFA refers to "the App Store" as if there is only one.
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Entrope ( 68843 )

      Apple registered a trademark [uspto.gov] for the name "App Store", so yes: in practice, there is only one. Use it to describe something else and you might get a letter from Apple's lawyers. Persist, and they could sue you under the Federal Trademark Dilution Act. (The above applies in the US, but I expect most non-US Slashdot readers are covered by similar provisions in their country's laws.)

      • Thanks for the info.

        But sweet Jesus, save us from being owned by Apple. Slavery is supposed to be illegal.
        • It is called a trademark, not "slavery" when companies brand their products. Do you call every car a “Honda"? When companies enforce their trademarks it is called "trademark protection", not murder FYI.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      How do I know? Just notice that TFA refers to "the App Store" as if there is only one.

      Welcome to marketing 101

      Google for example has an app store named the Play Store.
      Amazon for example has an app store named the Amazon Appstore.

      Apple has an app store that is named the App Store.
      This is due to being the first one to be popularized to the general public, and the others copying the name to convey they offer the same thing.

      No one wants to market a general purpose service as a business only service, so references to blackberry are avoided.

  • I don't think so (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @08:30AM (#63332537)

    Posts themselves can be replied to, retweeted...

    Whoever wrote TFA seems unable to conceive of life beyond Apple and Twitter. Between repeated references to only the Apple ecosystem, and using the word 'retweeted' in connection with a new platform whose name has nothing at all to do with birds, it seems the author is living in a bubble inside an echo chamber.

    He does raise an interesting question though, even if he's clueless about having done so. If Twitter subscribers "tweet", what do Bluesky subscribers do? "Blue-sky" already exists as a verb roughly equivalent to "brainstorm" - it's an uncomfortable fit at best, and it hardly rolls off the tongue. Oh, I know, maybe Bluesky subscribers can 'soar' or 'contrail'. O maybe they can "shout it to the sky". I dunno - I'm just blueskying here.

  • by Vandil X ( 636030 ) on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @08:47AM (#63332583)
    I wonder if the moderation/executive team behind this Twitter replacement will continue the same manipulation and censorship tactics they did while running Twitter. Say what you will about Elon, but he's exposed election manipulation, shadowbanning, and all manner of really bad behavior for a platform that had seen itself as a free speech vehicle.
    • I seriously doubt musk is better. New stuff is happening at twitter that is worse than before. Musk just changed the flavor of the twit dumpster fire. I mean would you trust a guy who was smoozing with Rupert at the super bowl? Although I will give one thing to rupert. He appears not to have lied under oath about the Dominion defamation suit, which should cause Fox to go BK if the jury has a brain. It was very damming testimony. He admitted FOX knew it was a lie and yet for ratings they supported the lie th
    • by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @12:43PM (#63333249)

      I wonder if the moderation/executive team behind this Twitter replacement will continue the same manipulation and censorship tactics they did while running Twitter. Say what you will about Elon, but he's exposed election manipulation, shadowbanning, and all manner of really bad behavior for a platform that had seen itself as a free speech vehicle.

      And Musk has engaged in arguably worse behaviour. I mean beyond all the other stuff he literally modified the platform to amplify his Tweets [salon.com]!!

      The lesson is, running a social media platform is hard. Whatever rules you make, people will try to exploit them, whatever line you try and set, people will try to balance on it.

      If you're too light on the moderation you're now a vehicle for election manipulation, harassment, terrorism, and you get a generally toxic atmosphere. And the moment you try to combat those things you're again accused of "election manipulation", censorship, bias, etc, etc.

    • Its like reporting that police hold people against their will. I mean Duh. Yes that's what they should do in a free society to keep society safe for everyone else. We design systems for whole populations not individual needs. You get a larger audience, larger ad spend. So Twitter, facebook etc are geared towards delivering the best experience for advertisers. Twitter just has always sucked at that, despite the moderation tools at their disposal. So keeping the insane politics that you no doubt ascribe to, t
  • We don't need another social media platform. Dorsey spending his time reimagining something he's already done - and that was done nearly 20 years ago - is boring to say the least.

    • by Rademir ( 168324 )

      Watching people try to reinvent the wheel is actually pretty amusing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBqV0OpTo0o

  • by Stonent1 ( 594886 ) <stonent AT stone ... intclark DOT net> on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @11:13AM (#63332999) Journal
    "backed by Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey"
  • Come to us if you want to be censored.

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