Bluesky Social The Latest Social Media App. Bluesky is a social media platform similar to Twitter, but its underlying technology, known as the AT protocol architecture, has the potential to bring about a significant change. Its advanced functionality could be groundbreaking.
In 2019, Bluesky was created as a subsidiary project within Twitter with the goal of developing a decentralized social media infrastructure. After breaking away from Twitter in 2022, the beta version of the Bluesky application was launched in February 2023.
Origin of Bluesky Social
Bluesky is commonly known as a decentralized alternative to Twitter and is often seen as a competitor to the social media giant. However, it was actually created by Twitter in 2019 as a side project with the aim of developing an open and decentralized social media standard. Twitter’s founder, Jack Dorsey, expressed a desire for Twitter to eventually adopt this standard.
In August 2021, Jay Graber, previously a developer for Zcash, took over as the head of the Bluesky team. By February 2022, Bluesky had become an independent organization after forming its Public Benefit LLC. The announcement of the Bluesky app in October 2022 received significant attention, with around 30,000 sign-ups to the waitlist in just two days. As of writing, the Bluesky app is only available in beta version on the Apple App Store, with no Android version available yet.
Bluesky Social User Interface
Bluesky, still in beta testing phase, appears to closely resemble Twitter in its app design. Some users have expressed that the features like comments, likes, and reposts feel too similar to Twitter’s retweets, and even the visual presentation of posts and replies is reminiscent of Twitter. The main differences are minor, such as a post character limit of 265 instead of 280.
Despite the familiar user experience for Twitter users, some argue that Bluesky’s potential lies in its underlying technology and its ability to enable new possibilities. Although Bluesky is currently a proof of concept for a decentralized social media platform, it has succeeded in incorporating certain functionalities of a centralized platform like Twitter. However, it is the potential of its advanced technology that has created excitement and buzz around Bluesky as a potential gamechanger in the social media landscape.
Bluesky Social Innovative AT Protocol
Bluesky’s primary objective was not to create a decentralized competitor to Twitter, nor was it focused on the app’s aesthetics, features, or UX. The main goal was to develop a decentralized social network protocol that could be used by anyone. The technology used to achieve this is called the authenticated transport (AT) protocol, which underpins the Bluesky platform.
Although Bluesky is the first major platform built on the AT protocol, the technology is open and available for use by anyone, including users, developers, and companies. This means that others could potentially create their own social media platforms using AT protocol technology. In theory, even Twitter could run on the AT protocol as Jack Dorsey had envisioned, although the recent change in ownership of Twitter may make this less likely.
Bluesky Social allows to self-host own servers, profile, or social media platforms
The AT protocol is seen by many as the main innovation, rather than the Bluesky app. The protocol has the potential to transform social media in more than just technical ways, and create a network of federated social networks that can interact with each other. AT is a combination of decentralized technologies, but not a blockchain. It provides a new means for users to communicate with each other transparently, allowing them to self-host their own servers, profiles, or social media platforms.
This differs from existing social media platforms where users cannot self-host servers and data. The goal of this design is to make user data secure and resistant to influence from centralized entities, putting users in control of how their data is used. Users who don’t want to run their own servers can delegate a host of their choice and use Bluesky like any other social media app.
Bluesky Social allows you to switch networks without losing data/contacts
Currently, social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and Youtube operate as separate ecosystems, with different followers, friends, and content. If users are dissatisfied with a platform, they may not have good alternatives, and moving to a different platform can be a daunting task. Moreover, they may lose the key data and social contacts they value if they switch to a new social network.
However, the AT protocol offers a solution to this problem. One of its key features is the ability to port over a social media profile to another network without losing key data and social contacts. For instance, if a user doesn’t like how Bluesky operates, they can move to a Bluesky alternative built on the AT protocol and continue without any data loss.
Bluesky aims to promote transparent and public conversation on social media by reducing disinformation and authoritarian manipulation, which is not found in other social media platforms.
Aim to build trust
Bluesky’s creators aim to create a social network protocol that enables global conversations with user control and transparency, unlike many decentralized networks that are limited to smaller online communities. They want to reestablish trust among social media users, and Bluesky includes features such as cryptography to verify the authenticity of user-generated content and the use of domain names as usernames to enhance trust and verification.
Ability to Change Algorithms
Today’s centralized social media platforms often spark distrust because of the algorithms they use to shape public discourse and curate social media feeds. Bluesky aims to offer algorithmic choice to its users as a way to establish trust. Bluesky’s algorithmic choice feature would allow users to choose the algorithm they want to use, or modify the algorithm if they choose.
Bluesky sees the lack of transparency and control of these algorithms as the main problem with centralized social media offerings, not the algorithms themselves. Bluesky will offer a “marketplace of algorithms” that allows users to choose the algorithm they want to use, switch between algorithms at will, and even publish their own algorithms that others can use.
Bluesky will also offer “composable moderation” as a key feature of their social app. Users will have the ability to customize their moderation filters, either by network admins or by the community itself. While these features have yet to be fully implemented, Bluesky’s approach seems to offer a promising alternative to the current secrecy-ensconced content moderation and algorithms that are currently on offer.
Source: Decrypt
