But is it too late?
For a start, it was created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.
Can it compete withthe decentralized, federated Mastodon, which is kind of “supported” byMeta’s Threads?
Bluesky Social Media Platform.Rawpixel / Mockup Photos
This is largely powered by ActivityPub.
You don’t even have to think about ityou just send the mail and it arrives.
That’s what ActivityPub does for social and other web-publishing services.
Mastodon Mobile App.Battenhall / Unsplash
It makes them interoperable.
The best-known ActivityPub platform is Mastodon, which isa data pipe of interlinked, independently run servers.
This interoperability has made it possible for FaceBook’s giant Twitter replacement, Threads, to work with Mastodon.
Receiving social media notifications on a smartphone.Oscar Wong / Getty Images
Enter Bluesky, which is similarly decentralized.
The difference is that Bluesky uses its own networking tech, called theAT Protocol.
This protocol makes it possible for third-party services to interoperate with Bluesky and with each other.
Battenhall / Unsplash
The trouble is that this splits the federated social world into two.
It’s like VHS and Betamax, Blu-ray vs HD-DVD, or AOL vs CompuServe.
They do the same thing, but they don’t work together.
You Get to Choose
The easy answer is don’t.
If you’re already on Mastodon, then just stick to that.
Mastodon is here to stay.
You just give it your email, date of birth, phone number, and you’re in.
And the federated nature of Mastodon isn’t well-suited to moderation.
Meanwhile, Bluesky has some surprising advocates.
Or just use both and wait to see which one ends up the best for your purposes.
That’s the beauty of choice and competitionyou’re not stuck with one default option.
