Jack Dorsey hopes to make a comeback in the social media industry with Bluesky, which launched in app stores on Tuesday night, after leaving his position as CEO of Twitter in November 2021. Although though the app is only accessible through invite, this suggests that the public debut of the app is just around the corner.
In essence, Bluesky is reportedly said to be a Twitter spinoff that Twitter fostered before it was established as a distinct entity. It is powered by a decentralized social network protocol that enables users to work together to build a social network that is not centralized, managed, or owned by a single company.
When Jack Dorsey was still the CEO of Twitter, he commissioned Bluesky. Yet with more than 30,000 signups on its waitlist in less than two days, the project is swiftly being hailed as a substitute and possibly even a successor of the Musk-owned Twitter.
What is Bluesky?
An UI that is remarkably similar to Twitter’s is depicted in screenshots on the Bluesky App Store page. On posts, there are likes, “reposts” that resemble retweets, and comments. But this social network functions very differently behind the scenes.
Bluesky is a decentralised social software, which means it runs on several servers managed by various entities rather than being under the jurisdiction of a single business. Your account information is kept on a server that connects these “decentralised” components via a piece of technology known as the AT Protocol. If you’ve used Mastodon, the most well-known Twitter substitute, you’ve already used a decentralised social network.
In essence, Bluesky was developed and sponsored by Twitter, the parent company, with the intention that Twitter would someday use the technology. To that reason, Twitter gave Bluesky $13 million in investment with no requirements or promises other than to continue the research.
What Dorsey has to say about bluesky?
A public benefit corporation called Bluesky is attempting to create a brand-new, “open and decentralized” social media platform. The platform seeks to establish a uniform framework for social media websites. After being fully built, it would enable various social media networks to communicate with one another using an open standard, despite the fact that every network has its own moderation and curation procedures.
As a response to Twitter’s shortcomings, Bluesky was created. It was made public at a time when social media platforms were being charged with stealing data, spreading false information, and interfering in elections. In fact, Jack Dorsey announced the initiative in a discussion on Twitter where he defended the removal of Donald Trump from the service.
Dorsey tweeted: “We are trying to do our part by funding an initiative around an open decentralized standard for social media. Our goal is to be a client of that standard for the public conversation layer of the internet. We call it Bluesky.”
“The work must be done transparently in the open, not owned by any single private corporation, furthering the open & decentralized principles of the internet.” Dorsey stated when the app was launched.
How will Bluesky operate?
Twitter set out to address a problem that practically all social media platforms were having. How can one control the words of millions of users without going too far and endangering the company’s financial health? Twitter made the decision to support a “small independent team” of up to five software developers with the goal of developing “an open and decentralised standard for social media” in order to address this issue.
In essence, Bluesky wants to develop a “decentralised” social media protocol. Using the same underlying networks and data, this would enable businesses and people to create apps, services, or recommendation engines.
It functions similarly to email in that you can send a message and attachment to someone even if they use a different email provider.
This is so because email was created using technical standards like HTTP and TCP/IP, which establish a common protocol for computer-to-computer communication over a network. Due to the fact that these “protocols” are open source, anyone can use them or create products on top of them. Bluesky intends to do that, but for social media applications.
Features of Twitter’s rival Bluesky
●The software has a straightforward user interface where you can click a plus button to add a 256-character post that supports images.
●Bluesky queries “What’s up,” whereas Twitter queries “What’s happening?”
●Users of Bluesky can share, mute, and block accounts, but the study states that more sophisticated capabilities, including adding them to lists, are not yet accessible.
●The app’s explore tab, located at the bottom centre of the menu, is helpful because it provides extra recommendations for “who to follow” and a feed of newly posted Bluesky updates.
●You may check your Notifications in another tab, including likes, reposts, follows, and replies—just like Twitter and can then view their updates in a Home timeline.
●A profile photo, backdrop, bio, and analytics are all included in user profiles.
Will Dorsey be able to offer a alternative to Twitter
Will Dorsey be able to provide a workable substitute for Twitter, since under Elon Musk it underwent modifications that some users found unappealing? According to experts, it is quite unlikely that a platform like Bluesky will surpass Twitter. Internet Freedom Foundation’s Prateek Waghre stated, “While decentralized social media platforms have gained prominence in the past 4-5 years. It is largely motivated by concerns associated with traditional social media sites. However, centralized social media protocol has its own benefits around optimised engagement, better response times, and generally better user experience. Even if users are concerned about the harms of mainstream social media, users much prefer the optimised user interface of a centralized social media platform like Twitter.”