Yesterday, Twitter rival Bluesky experienced its biggest spike in users yet. Between Wednesday and Thursday, Bluesky doubled its user base, Bloomberg reported.
Bluesky’s popularity came when some of Twitter’s most influential users joined Bluesky, including writer-comedian Dril, United States Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and filmmaker James Gunn. Some of these influencers may have been trying to distance themselves from Twitter after the platform endowed many legacy accounts with blue verified badges that falsely labeled the accounts as paid subscribers.
Bluesky is still in beta testing and is currently available to more than 40,000 users, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber told Bloomberg today. However, there is much more interest from users. The iPhone app has been downloaded about 360,000 times and the Android app is said to be a top download after only recently launching in the US, UK and Japan.
However, with influencers tweeting out their Bluesky handles, it’s likely that many more users have joined the waitlist, which is seemingly the only way to get an invite code right now. Beta users may also have invitations to share soon. Ars could not immediately reach Bluesky for comment.
The eagerness to find a Twitter replacement seemed to escalate after Twitter removed and then reintroduced verification badges on obsolete verified accounts. Many Twitter users joke about getting or wanting Bluesky invites at a time when one of Bluesky’s newest users, model Chrissy Teigen, recently described having Twitter’s blue badge on her account as a form of “punishment.”
In addition to celebrities and influencers feeling stung by receiving blue checks they never asked for false branding of their accounts, even users who never really cared about badges could be more actively looking for a Twitter alternative as the platform becomes less reliable .
In recent months, several news organizations left the platform, many government accounts lost authentication, and many apps broke when Twitter disabled the free API. This week, Mashable reported that Twitter was not making search available without a login, further restricting access to tweets. Just yesterday, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) became one of the first major transportation agencies to stop sharing live updates on Twitter. In MTA’s press release, acting chief customer officer Shanifah Rieara said MTA has terminated those posting services because “the reliability of the platform can no longer be guaranteed.”
But while it’s easy to criticize Twitter’s inconsistencies as CEO Elon Musk tries to find new ways to monetize the platform, Bluesky in its beta form may not be a perfect alternative for users concerned about things like identity impersonation. , content moderation or customizable news feeds.
