Increased Userbase for Bluesky: A Surge of 763% Occurred in 2024, Resulting in 13 Million New Users Over the Past Month and a Half
Bluesky's 2024 Transformation: A New Era of Social Media
In 2024, Bluesky, the decentralized social media platform, underwent a significant transformation, introducing a host of features aimed at enhancing public accessibility, improving user experience, and supporting creators financially.
The journey began in February when Bluesky opened its doors to the public, moving beyond its invite-only beta phase. This was followed by the enabling of federation through the AT Protocol, allowing users and developers to build apps within its decentralized framework and provide their own content storage.
Bluesky demonstrated its versatility by supporting third-party apps like Smoke Signal and Bluecast, empowering developers to create diverse experiences within its platform. The platform also introduced subscription features to financially support content creators, with options for uploading higher-quality videos. However, it committed not to prioritize paid accounts in content feeds.
Technical enhancements were a key focus for Bluesky in 2024. Leveraging neural networks and scoring functions, Bluesky personalized content feeds efficiently with fast response times (~50ms). It used extensive training data (5TB) and a high-dimensional data model (128 dimensions) to refine content recommendations while maintaining a federated, decentralized architecture for privacy and scalability.
Moderation tools were incorporated within the AT Protocol, indicating a careful balancing of openness with content control. Bluesky also raised $15 million in Series A funding to expand its decentralized tools and user appeal without integrating cryptocurrencies or NFTs.
The user base of Bluesky surged notably in 2024, reaching around 25 million by December. The platform also detected unexpected engagement spikes tied to sports events during certain regional social media restrictions.
In terms of minor or incremental updates, Bluesky introduced new notification settings, continued refining performance and user interface responsiveness, and launched features like starter packs, hashtags, direct messages, trending topics, pinned posts, and the thread composer.
Bluesky's commitment to decentralization, improved user and developer experiences, financial support for creators, and scalability without relying on cryptocurrency monetization set it apart in 2024. As a result, many users are leaving traditional platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to join Bluesky due to its less toxic environment.
For those interested in managing their Bluesky experience more effectively, there is a site (deck.blue) with a similar interface to TweetDeck available. Additionally, third-party Bluesky apps like Beeskie and DarkSky can be found on Windows 11. Trending topics were launched around Christmas, and self-moderation tools like detach quotes and hide reply were introduced in August.
Video sharing was introduced in September, and pinned posts were added in October. Users now have the option to run personal data servers instead of relying on Bluesky's infrastructure.
As Bluesky continues to evolve, it remains dedicated to providing a decentralized, user-friendly, and creator-supportive social media platform for all.
- Microsoft announced the availability of a Surface Laptop 4 running Windows 11, boasting improved performance and integrated software features.
- On Xbox, users were excited about the upcoming update that promises to enhance graphic quality and gaming experience on the platform.
- With the increasing popularity of Bluesky, many users are not only using it for social-media purposes but also leveraging it for entertainment and discussion on various topics.
- To further personalize the user experience, Microsoft added the ability to customize the lock screen background on Surface devices with photos from personal albums.
- As Bluesky expands its user base, some critics have wondered about the potential interplay between Bluesky and other technology giants like Microsoft, but no official announcements have been made yet.
- In an effort to further enhance the entertainment aspect of its platform, Bluesky introduced a Netflix-like feature for streaming movies and TV shows directly from the app on multiple devices.
