Bluesky, the Twitter alternative backed by Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, has made its way to the App Store as an invite-only beta app. The arrival of the app on the App Store indicates that a public launch could be approaching soon.
Bluesky’s team last shared an update on the social protocol that powers the Twitter-like app in October 2022. The main effort of Bluesky is its Authenticated Transfer Protocol (AT), which serves as the backbone of the app. The Bluesky mobile app, on the other hand, is designed to showcase the protocol in action.
The AT protocol is similar to the ActivityPub protocol that powers Mastodon, providing a means to create a federated and decentralized social network. However, some developers, including Mastodon, have criticized the project, arguing that ActivityPub is already a widely adopted protocol that powers a growing “Fediverse” of interconnected servers.
Despite the criticisms, Bluesky is making progress with its invite-only beta app release. The app’s arrival on the App Store is a significant step forward for the project, and more testers are gaining access. The team behind Bluesky aims to create a social network that offers more control and privacy to users than existing platforms, and they hope to achieve this through a decentralized and federated approach.
It remains to be seen whether Bluesky will succeed in becoming a viable alternative to Twitter, but its progress so far is promising. With Jack Dorsey’s backing and a strong team behind it, Bluesky has the potential to make a significant impact on the social media landscape. As more users gain access to the invite-only app and provide feedback, we may gain a better understanding of whether Bluesky can deliver on its promises of a decentralized, user-controlled social network.
