Is Jack Dorsey’s backed Bluesky the new Twitter alternative?

Prior to Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in a $44 billion deal in late 2022 and “blue check mark chaos,” several attempts had already been made to create alternative platforms. But in the span of just three years, the number of alternative Twitter apps has surged from around three in 2020 to eight in 2023, with notable examples including Gap, Parler, MeWe, and the more recent addition of Mastodon.

While each of these new platforms offers unique features and communities, none of them provides the same level of engagement and overall experience as Twitter. Now, another alternative app has just been launched and many are saying it may be the next Twitter killer.

Backed by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, Bluesky is a decentralized social media platform that has generated significant buzz on Twitter and on mainstream media (video below) after it released a limited number of invites.

Bluesky was first introduced by Jack Dorsey in 2019 as an internal project aimed at developing a decentralized social network protocol. Twitter’s then-CTO (now CEO), Parag Agrawal, was in charge of the project at the time. In late 2021, Bluesky was transformed into a public benefit LLC separate from Twitter.

Since Bluesky was developed within Twitter, it shares many of the same features and has a comparable user interface to Twitter.

For now, Bluesky only offers only the most basic features, including the ability to create 300-character posts and upload still images, but lacks DM capabilities and does not support videos or GIFs. It features a chronological feed of posts made by followed users, as well as a “What’s Hot” feed that highlights popular posts from all users. The platform is currently only accessible via invite.

As one Bluesky user explains, Bluesky “might have the juice.”

the CEO of bluesky is pleading with new users to not call posts "skeets." this platform might have the juice pic.twitter.com/Admv3cqGgM

— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) April 28, 2023

How Can You Get Early Access to Bluesky?

Bluesky is currently in the beta phase. You would need an invite code to join Bluesky either from existing users or by simply joining the waitlist. There are some reports that Bluesky invite codes are for sale on the black market. If you’re seeking a Twitter alternative that provides a similar user experience, I highly recommend giving Bluesky a try!

Here’s another video about Bluesky.