The Bluesky social network has been growing rapidly since the end of the US presidential election. A company representative said in an email Monday that the site has added more than 1 million users per day over the past few days, an increase of more than 5.5 million users since the elections. November 5, bringing it to more than 21 million users. by Thursday.

There are at least two ever-changing counters created by Bluesky users that track the site’s numbers. A counter comes from Theo Sanderson, professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; another counter is by a user who simply goes by the name Natalie on the site.

Bluesky is currently #1 in the free apps section of the US App Store for iPhone, ahead of popular social network Threads and AI assistant ChatGPT. That’s quite a jump since October, when he was ranked 181st, according to TechCrunchciting figures from an app intelligence company Application figures.

The site’s growth of one million users per day equates to approximately 12 new users per second. The 21 million user mark compares to 9 million users in September.

And celebrities are also making their presence known at Bluesky. Star Wars Star Mark Hamill recently joined the siteproclaiming himself “leaving Twitter”.

Bluesky may be booming, but the site still has a way to go to catch up with competing sites. Forbes Reports that X had 588 million users worldwide in September, down from 611 million in April. Threads, Meta’s competitor to Xhas more than 275 million daily users.

The X factor

While there is no way to determine how many new users have left due to X owner Elon Musk’s public support of President-elect Donald Trump, many Bluesky users are referencing the election in their posts. first messages. Wired Reports that many fans of Taylor Swift, a group that once had a strong presence on X, are turning to Bluesky.

Bluesky is a social media platform that shares many similarities with X, formerly known as Twitter. X has undergone a number of changes after billionaire Musk bought the site and retired inheritance blue checkmarks showing verified accounts, reinstated previously banned accounts and started a new subscription program.

On October 16, X announced that it was changing its blocking feature, which allowed people to prevent others from seeing their posts on the site. Accounts that have been blocked can now see posts from that person on “It doesn’t block” a user. “It supports harassment.”

The next day, October 17, Bluesky shared a post announcing that it had welcomed 500,000 people in a single day. "First day here," a Bluesky user » wrote in response to the company’s message about its growth. “I’m getting my feet wet. I was a long-time Twitter user, but it’s just a shell of what it used to be.”

X has also updated its conditions of use so that any legal action brought by users against service is processed by a federal court in northern Texas, “whose judges frequently give victories to conservative litigants in political affairs “. The Globe and Mail reports.

These latest changes may have sparked a renewed interest in Bluesky, which has seen a increase in user accounts earlier this year, when X was blocked by Brazil’s courts (the blockage was later lifted when X paid a fine). According to The New York TimesUsers say that Bluesky is the app that comes closest to imitating X.

Here’s a look at what you need to know about Bluesky.

How can I register?

To register, simply go to the main page to create an account. You can download the Bluesky app to iOS Or Androidor use Bluesky on your desktop.

It will ask for your email address and phone number (to send an authentication code) and ask you to choose a username and password. So there you are.

How is Bluesky similar to X and Threads?

If you’re used to X, the design and purpose of Bluesky should make sense to you.

The site uses vertically scrolling posts with small round photo avatars for users and icons below posts indicating the number of comments, likes and reposts they have received. This looks quite similar to the format of Meta discussionswhich is currently the #2 free app on the App Store, behind Bluesky.

Who is behind all this?

Here’s another Twitter/X connection: Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey was previously a board member, and the Bluesky Project started in 2019 when he was CEO of Twitter. Jay Graber is the CEO of Bluesky.

Even the name Bluesky is linked to the old name X. Dorsey confirmed a Bluesky user’s speculation that the name is linked to Twitter’s bird mascot, the idea being that the bird could fly even more freely in open blue skies. Dorsey left the board in Mayapparently because the service added moderation tools.

Even though the name of the site does not capitalize “sky”, it is pronounced “sky blue”. Don’t make it rhyme with “breewski”.

The application is built on something called the authenticated transport protocolor AT, a company-created social media framework made up of a network of many different sites.

And how is Bluesky different?

Domains as identifiers

On the one hand, you can set your domain as your identifier, if you wish. This could make verification easier, which became a hot topic for Twitter once Musk began removing blue checkmarks from verified accounts that refused to pay monthly fees.

“For example, a newsroom like NPR could set its handle as @npr.org,” the Bluesky Social Company Blog Notes. “Then any journalists NPR wants to verify could use subdomains to set their handle to @name.npr.org. Brand accounts could also set their handle to be their domain.”

Moderation

Moderation is also different. Another blog post says Bluesky already uses automated moderation and is working on a community tagging system, which is described as “something similar to shared block/mutation lists.”

Users of many social media platforms see posts from a feed selected for them by an algorithm, although you can influence this by following or blocking certain accounts. But Bluesky wants to give you the opportunity to choose from a variety of different algorithms to determine what you see.

You can mute accounts, which prevents you from seeing their notifications or top-level posts, or you can block accounts, which goes even further, meaning you and the other account can’t see or interact with each other’s publications. And you can report abusive posts or accounts. The blocking option may be of particular interest to users unhappy with X’s recent change in blocking behavior.

Some features — being able to hide replies to your messages and detach your messages from other users’ messages that quote yours — are designed to stop stacks and other toxic substances behavior.

Keep the links

It’s possible that creators who gain an audience on Bluesky will one day be able to keep the links with those who follow them, even if the service itself changes.

If you want to track people you followed on X, the third party Sky Followers Bridge is a free tool that analyzes your follower list and tracks accounts with the same names on Bluesky. You’ll get a few false positives and lots of inactive Bluesky accounts, but overall we’ve found it to work very well.

Custom feeds

Algorithms are the rules that determine how content is filtered and recommended to users. Bluesky offers something it calls custom feeds, which let you choose the algorithm that determines what you see.

“Imagine you want your timeline to consist of only posts from your mutuals, or only posts with cat photos, or only sports-related posts – you can simply choose the feed you want from an open marketplace,” he declared. blog post on the site said. A longer article gives more details on personalized feeds and algorithmic choice. Click the hashtag icon at the bottom of the app to add and discover new feeds.

Developers can use the site feed generator starter kit to create a custom feed, and the site promises that eventually the tools will be simple enough that the rest of us can create custom feeds.

Notice

The CEO of the Onion Ben Collins tweeted in April 2023, while a tech reporter for NBC, that Bluesky “works, looks and feels like (Twitter)”, and praised the site’s “moderation, desktop experience and reliability”.

As of November 19, the site had a 4.2 out of 5 star rating on the Apple App Store. “It feels like early Twitter, but more organic,” one reviewer wrote.

Who uses it?

Here’s a small list of some people and groups you’ll see posting on Bluesky.