Explained: What is Bluesky, new Twitter rival from Jack Dorsey

Twitter saw a huge migration of users after the micro-blogging platform was acquired by Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a massive $44 billion deal. A huge number of Twitter users moved to other social media apps like Mastodon. Betting big on the market of former Twitter users, ex-CEO and co-founder of Twitter Jack Dorsey has launched a new platform called Bluesky that is now available on the Apple App Store in the testing phase.

According to app intelligence firm data.ai, the Bluesky iOS app debuted on February 17 and had seen some 2,000 downloads in the testing phase. As per the report, the app offers a simplified user interface where you can click a plus button to create a post of 256 characters, which can include photos.

While Twitter asks "What's happening?", Bluesky asks "What's up?"

Bluesky users can share, mute and block accounts, but advanced tools, like adding them to lists, are not yet available, according to the report. The discover tab in the bottom centre of the app's navigation is useful, offering more "who to follow" suggestions and a feed of recently posted Bluesky updates.

"Another tab lets you check on your Notifications, including likes, reposts, follows and replies, also much like Twitter. There are no DMs," according to the report.

You can search for and follow other individuals, much like on Twitter, then view their updates in a Home timeline. User profiles contain a profile pic, background, bio and metrics.

The Bluesky project originated with Twitter in 2019, but the company was established in 2022 as an independent company focused on decentralized social network R&D.

After leaving Twitter, Dorsey spoke about Bluesky, describing it as "an open decentralised standard for social media".

In October last year, Dorsey posted on Twitter that Bluesky intends to be "a competitor to any company trying to own the underlying fundamentals for social media or the data of the people using it".

Bluesky last year received $13 million in funding with Dorsey on its board.

"Bluesky has received $13 million to ensure we have the freedom and independence to get started on R&D. Former Twitter CEO @jack is on our board and a former Twitter security engineer has joined the team," it had tweeted.

Bluesky was formed to research and develop technologies that enable open and decentralised public conversation.

"It's rare for a project to be set up like this. We're using our freedom to focus on building, and will work towards our vision of a durable protocol for public conversation no matter what happens," said the company. (with inputs from IANS)