Bluesky is still an invite-only decentralized Twitter alternative, but now you don’t have to log in to see posts on the platform even if you don’t have an account, according to a blog post from Bluesky CEO Jay Graber. . Now, anyone can easily view posts like this one from both the web and the Bluesky app.
If you don’t want people who aren’t logged in to see your posts, you can “prevent” them by clicking the toggle in the settings. However, Bluesky notes that “other apps may not accept this request” and that this switch does not make your account private.
“Bluesky is an open, public network,” Bluesky said in a note below the toggle. “This setting only limits the visibility of content in the Bluesky app and website, and other apps may not respect this setting,” Graber wrote in a blog post, “Posts about Bluesky has always been exposed through developer tools and other apps.”
Bluesky’s new logo is also a butterfly. Previously, the app’s logo was a blue sky with clouds, but “early on, we noticed that people were naturally using the butterfly emoji 🦋 to denote his Bluesky handle,” he said. Graber said in a blog post. “This butterfly speaks to our mission to reinvent social media.”
I think butterflies have come a long way from the typical blue sky. And, as my colleague Parker Ortolani discovered, the app features fun animations that will be familiar to his Twitter fans. (I mean Twitter, not X.)
As ActivityPub gains momentum, including very public support from Meta’s Threads, I was worried that Bluesky, which is based on a proprietary AT protocol, would be left behind. But every time I visit my Bluesky account, people seem to be having a lot of fun. The platform also seems to be growing rapidly. Therefore, we hope that the protocols will coexist and lead to a federal future.