Jack Dorsey's new Twitter "Bluesky" launched for chosen ones
Jack Dorsey's Twitter alternative, Bluesky, is now available on the App Store, but you need an invite to sign-up and test the new application. It is still in beta, and only selected users are testing it out before the initial release.
Dorsey is known as the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter. Elon Musk acquired the company a couple of months back. A week before that, Dorsey started looking for beta testers to help him improve his decentralized social media app, Bluesky. Bluesky's blog is not the most updated page on the internet, as the last article was published on October 18, 2022. The blog post included insight on "the AT protocol" and a preview of what's to come, but silence has been the game's name until the App Store launch.
Its decentralized structure is what differentiates the app from Twitter. "The AT Protocol is a new federated social network. It integrates ideas from the latest decentralized technologies into a simple, fast, and open network," says the team behind Bluesky in their blog post. It is similar to ActivityPub, which powers Mastodon, another decentralized social media platform. Bluesky offers account portability, algorithmic choice, interoperation, and better performance, as seen in the blog post.
It looks very similar to Twitter, a simplified version, in other words. Tech Crunch says both apps have huge similarities yet small differences, while Twitter asks, "What's happening?" Bluesky's take is, "What's up?" The UI is almost identical as you have your feed and see others' updates, profile pictures, and other information you already have on Twitter. Users can create posts of up to 256 characters. Notifications and "retweets" are also identical, but according to Sarah Perez, the DM option is not available yet.
Dorsey was working on making Twitter a decentralized platform back in 2019, and the Mastodon account had some thoughts on this "unique idea." Especially after Elon Musk's acquisition, many users shifted to Mastodon, and now Bluesky is coming to compete against the decentralized platform and Twitter. While it is not the only work-in-progress app in the specific market, Jack Dorsey's presence and Bluesky's budget get it ahead. Last year, Bluesky announced that it received $13m to ensure it has the freedom and independence to get started on R&D.
Bluesky is still under construction, and only the accepted beta testers are welcome right now. There is still time until it gets available to the public. Currently, the team is working on fixing the bugs and bringing more features so the app gets ready for its official launch. Bringing it to App Store might signal that the public launch is closer than we think.
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Uhh, this has already been possible – I am not sure how but remember my brother telling me about it. I’m not a whatsapp user so not sure of the specifics, but something about sending the image as a file and somehow bypassing the default compression settings that are applied to inbound photos.
He has also used this to share movies to whatsapp groups, and files 1Gb+.
Like I said, I never used whatsapp, but I know 100% this isn’t a “brand new feature”, my brother literally showed me him doing it, like… 5 months ago?
Martin, what happened to those: 12 Comments (https://www.ghacks.net/chatgpt-gets-schooled-by-princeton-university/#comments). Is there a specific justifiable reason why they were deleted?
Hmm, it looks like the gHacks website database is faulty, and not populating threads with their relevant cosponsoring posts.
The page on ghacks this is on represents the best of why it has become so worthless, fill of click-bait junk that it’s about to be deleted from my ‘daily reads’.
It’s really like “Press Release as re-written by some d*ck for clicks…poorly.” And the subjects are laughable. Can’t wait for “How to search for files on Windows”.
> The page on ghacks this is on represents the best of why it has become so worthless, fill of click-bait junk…
Sadly, I have to agree.
Only Martin and Ashwin are worth subscribing to.
Especially Emre Çitak and Shaun are the worst ones.
If ghacks.net intended “Clickbait”, it would mark the end of Ghacks Technology News.
Ghacks doesn’t need crappy clickbaits. Clearly separate articles from newer authors (perhaps AIs and external sales person or external advertising man) as just “Advertisements”!
We, the subscribers of Ghacks, urge Martin to make a decision.
because nevermore wants to “monetize” on every aspect of human life…
“Threads” is like the Walmart of Social Media.
How hard can it be to clone a twitter version of that as well? They’re slow.
Yes, why not mention how large the HD files can be?
Why, not mention what version of WhatsApp is needed?
These omissions make the article feel so bare. If not complete.
Sorry posted on the wrong page.
such a long article for such a simple matter. Worthless article ! waste of time
I already do this by attaching them via the ‘Document’ option.
I don’t know what’s going on here at Ghacks but it’s obvious that something is broken, comments are being mixed whatever the article, I am unable to find some of my later posts neither. :S
Quoting the article,
“As users gain popularity, the value of their tokens may increase, allowing investors to reap rewards.”
Besides, beyond the thrill and privacy risks or not, the point is to know how you gain popularity, be it on social sites as everywhere in life. Is it by being authentic, by remaining faithful to ourselves or is it to have this particular skill which is to understand what a majority likes, just like politicians, those who’d deny to the maximum extent compatible with their ideological partnership, in order to grab as many of the voters they can?
I see the very concept of this Friend.tech as unhealthy, propagating what is already an increasing flaw : the quest for fame. I won’t be the only one to count himself out, definitely.
@John G. is right : my comment was posted on [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/23/what-is-friend-tech/] and it appears there but as well here at [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/08/how-to-follow-everyone-on-threads/]
This has been lasting for several days. Fix it or at least provide some explanations if you don’t mind.
> Google Chrome is following in Safari’s footsteps by introducing a new feature that allows users to move the Chrome address bar to the bottom of the screen, enhancing user accessibility and interaction.
Firefox did this long before Safari.
Basically they’ll do anything except fair royalties.