Twitter/X rival Bluesky finally opens to the public

Twitter/X rival Bluesky has finally opened the platform up to the public, meaning people can sign up without needing an invite.

Since Elon Musk purchased Twitter in October 2022, many users of the social media platform began to notice a decline in interest on the site.

With declining interest, other platforms like Bluesky and Threads began to pop up as a rival alternative to the now Musk-owned Twitter/X.

Bluesky was among the first to pop up as a rival, doing so through an invite-only method. That is, until February 6, 2024.

Bluesky finally opens to the public

Announced in a blog post, Bluesky has finally opened up the platform to the public. This comes after nearly a year of being in invite-only mode. During that time, users would receive one invite every two weeks to bring over a close friend or acquaintance from Twitter or Threads.

Whether or not the site will gain relevance now that it’s open to the public is yet to be seen, but TechCrunch reports that Bluesky had roughly three million users before opening the floodgates. This is just a drop in the bucket compared to Threads’ 130m active users and Mastodon’s 1.8 million as of writing.

Similar to Mastodon, Threads, and Twitter/X, Bluesky operates as just a short-form micro blogging platform to connect with like-minded users from around the world. What makes it stand apart from the latter, though, is the fact that its built on a federated platform.

They explain in the blog post that they’re set to launch widespread federation later in February, so that users will have full control over their moderation settings and timelines better than any current-day algorithm can offer.

We’ll have to wait to see if the site catches on, however. We’ll keep you updated as they continue to grow the platform.