Jack Dorsey Is Back In Game With Bluesky, A Twitter Alternative

Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey has returned to the social media game with the launch of Bluesky, his Twitter alternative, which is now available in the Apple App Store in the testing phase.

According to TechCrunch, the Twitter-funded microblogging platform is currently available as an invite-only beta, with a public launch imminent.

The Bluesky iOS app debuted on 17 February and had 2,000 installs in the testing phase, according to app intelligence firm data.ai.

The app has a simple user interface with a plus button that allows you to create a post of 256 characters that can include photos.

Bluesky asks "What's up?" while Twitter asks "What's going on?"

According to the report, Bluesky users can share, mute, and block accounts, but advanced tools such as adding them to lists have yet to be available.

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 allows you to check your Notifications, which include likes, reposts, follows and replies, similar to Twitter. There aren't any DMs,” according to the news.

Similar to Twitter, you can search for and follow other people and then view their updates in a Home timeline.

A profile picture, background, bio, and metrics are all included in user profiles.

The Bluesky project began with Twitter in 2019, but the company was founded in 2022 as an independent company focused on decentralised social network research and development.

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 received USD 13 million in funding last year, with Dorsey on its board. It was founded to conduct research and development on technologies that enable open and decentralised public discourse.

“It's unusual for a project to be set up this way. We are focusing our freedom on building and will continue to work towards our vision of a long-term protocol for public discourse, no matter what happens,” said the company.