Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, has launched a new Twitter-like micro-blogging platform called Bluesky, which is currently available as an invite-only beta.
Twitter started the Bluesky project in 2019 under CEO Dorsey, who left Twitter in November 2021. The original aim by its parent company Twitter was to eventually adopt the technology.
Twitter funded Bluesky on condition that Bluesky is to research and develop technologies that enable open and decentralized public conversation. However, Bluesky became an independent company in 2022 with focus on decentralised social network R&D.
"Both Twitter and Bluesky realized that our independence is important to the success of the project, which is why we established an independent company to ensure that we serve the broadest possible interests," Bluesky explained in its tweet on April 26, 2022.
Bluesky describes it as a “federated social network” where separate networks exist within a single hub. This means that the would run many sites instead of a single centralised site.
Bluesky is powered by its open-source social protocol called the Authenticated Transfer Protocol or AT Protocol. Bluesky, now in the testing phase, describes itself as an initiative to transition the social web from platforms to protocols.
According to app intelligence firm data.ai, the Bluesky iOS app offers a simplified user interface where you can click a plus button to create a post of 256 characters, which can include photos.