Bluesky, a short-form publishing platform built on the decentralized AT protocol, has reached 15 million users. This milestone comes as registration numbers have increased following the recent US presidential election.

Data tracked on the Bluesky API by Bluesky developer Jaz, shows an increase of around a million users in the last week alone. Bluesky Chief Operating Officer Rose Wang said Variety that the majority of this new user base is from the United States. This growth propelled the Bluesky app to first place in the iOS app store rankings, surpassing Threads, ChatGPT and the Google app.

Elon Musk owns X (formerly Twitter) and is a supporter of President-elect Donald Trump. So an increase of one million users from the United States after an election seems less like a coincidence. Signups are great, but the number of active users is a little less clear. The same API dashboard mentions that the number of users posting has ranged from around 280 to 933,000 over the past month, but there are a number of users beyond that who are not posting. not their own posts as often.

Recent feature updates to Bluesky include video posting capabilities, post pinning, and the use of custom fonts. Bluesky has also implemented several “anti-toxicity” features, such as giving users the ability to detach their posts from others’ quotes. This gives them a way to stay away from unwanted or negative interactions. X on the other hand does less effective blockingwhich is probably another reason why people are looking for a new platform.

While Bluesky’s recent growth is notable, the app is still small compared to Twitter/X’s larger competitors. Meta’s Threads platform is still growing its user base, but it is significantly larger and recently reported more than 200 million per month users. Both are competitors of 300 million active monthly users. Although both platforms currently operate ad-free, they offer distinct user experiences. Chat streams are organized and developed algorithmically by Meta. In contrast, Bluesky allows users to create personalized algorithmic feeds alongside its Discover and “Popular With Friends” feeds.

Source: The edge, Variety