One year prior, Bluesky was opened to the public and was recognized as one of the competitors to the platform formerly known as Twitter, following its acquisition by Elon Musk. Currently, Bluesky’s social network has expanded to more than 33 million users, and the underlying technology, the AT Protocol (or ATProto), is being utilized to develop numerous applications geared towards creating an integrated open social web.
Developers of these applications participated in the inaugural AT Protocol conference, ATmosphere, held in Seattle during the previous weekend. At this event, attendees gained insights into the future trajectory of ATProto, the challenges ahead, and aspects to consider while building this new social application ecosystem. Additional participants joined online, viewing the presentations remotely and engaging in the growing community on Discord.
The ATProto community is striving to reconstruct Web 2.0, which comprised social media sites, blogs, wikis, and various other collaborative services. This effort focuses on utilizing open technology, moving away from centralized services typically operated by tech giants. While Bluesky was the pioneer, it is unlikely to be the last if the open social web movement proves sustainable.
Below is a compilation of AT Protocol-based, consumer-oriented applications either built on Bluesky or its foundation, promoting user control over their social networking experiences and personal data. Although many are still in early development, they reflect the potential within this burgeoning ecosystem.
Photo and Video-Sharing Apps:
Flashes: Created by Berlin developer Sebastian Vogelsang, Flashes is an alternative to Instagram. Launched publicly at the end of February, it achieved 30,000 downloads within 24 hours. It allows users to upload up to four photos or videos, with videos now allowed up to three minutes in length due to an update by Bluesky. Features include photo filters, curated artist feeds, custom feeds, and a Portfolio Mode.
Spark: Originally known as Reelo, this video-centric app is built on the broader AT Protocol, offering features such as support for longer videos, filters, effects, music libraries, and future plans for live streaming.
Skylight Social: Developed in Seattle by Victoria White and Reed Harmeyer, Skylight Social is built on Bluesky, offering likes, follows, comments, and profile pages. Users can follow its development on TikTok as more features are integrated.
Pinksky: Created by developer Ramon Souza, this app aims to provide an Instagram-like experience using ATProto and focuses on photo-sharing. Available on iOS and Android, it features user profiles, photo and video feeds, and a 24-hour Stories section.
Bluescreen: Developed by Vogelsang, Bluescreen is an upcoming app concentrating on video content posted on the Bluesky network.
- Videos for Bluesky: An app by indie Japanese developer Hoshida Takiyoshi, it allows users to browse videos on Bluesky via a TikTok-style interface with interaction buttons like Like, Repost, and Reply.
Livestreaming:
- Streamplace: The first livestreaming service using the AT Protocol, it facilitates high-quality video streaming, live streaming, clips, and uploads, maintaining creator consent preferences. Founder Eli Mallon is working towards appealing to creators wanting to connect directly with fans.
Feed Builders:
Graze: This startup aids users in building, customizing, and managing Bluesky feeds, eventually monetizing them through ads and subscriptions, working with Bluesky’s Jetstream.
Surf: Flipboard’s new app enables users to build custom feeds from the open web, combining social posts with news articles, blogs, podcasts, and YouTube feeds. It remains in private beta testing with a waiting list available for sign-up.
- SkyFeed: A web-based client for Bluesky, SkyFeed offers a dashboard view of feeds and profiles and provides a user-friendly method for non-developers to build custom feeds.
Communication / Social Discovery:
Germ: An app aiming to be a social platform allowing user data control, developed as an end-to-end encrypted messenger. Its founders are Tessa Brown and Mark Xue.
- Roomy: A peer-to-peer messaging app grounded in open standards such as ATProto for social discovery. Logging in is facilitated through Bluesky accounts, and it currently remains in alpha testing.
Social Trends:
Dazzle.fm: Developed by John Sabath, this service organizes Bluesky’s data into categories and trends, allowing users to tailor their experiences by filtering out undesired content.
Sill: A link aggregation service akin to Nuzzel, Sill allows users to track conversations on alternative social platforms and logs in using Bluesky’s OAuth.
- Frontpage: An ATProto-built link aggregator. It offers a straightforward method to organize and vote on posts and links shared across the network.
Alternative Bluesky Clients:
Skeets: Developed by Vogelsang, this app offers an optimized alternative to Bluesky’s main application for better accessibility across iPhone and iPad.
- Deck.blue: A web app reminiscent of TweetDeck, Deck.blue provides columns for Home feeds, Notifications, custom feeds, lists, and supports multiple accounts and post scheduling.
Events:
- Smoke Signal: An event management platform, it enables users to discover and RSVP to events while retaining control over personal data.
Blogging:
- White Wind: This service supports Markdown blogging via ATProto accounts, facilitating image uploads, post previews, and automatic inclusion of Bluesky replies in blog posts.
Analytics:
BlueSkyHunter: A toolset providing insights and analytics for Bluesky, detecting trends and viral content that may inform user strategy on the platform.
- Fedica: Offering a dashboard for scheduling posts across multiple social platforms, including Bluesky, with tools for hashtag tracking, keyword monitoring, and follower analysis.
