Bluesky Hits 24 Million Users, AOC Now Has 1 Million Followers: Should You Join?

Social media platform Bluesky has been growing at a rapid pace since the conclusion of the US presidential election. The site has added more than 10 million users since the Nov. 5 election, pushing it to more than 24 million users by Dec. 4. Recently, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York became the first person to reach more than one million followers on the platform, the first of any Bluesky account outside of the company. Ocasio-Cortez has 1.1 million followers as of Wednesday.

There are at least two ever-changing counters created by Bluesky users that track the site’s numbers. One counter comes from Theo Sanderson, professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; the other counter is for the user who just goes through Natalie on the site.

Read more: Bluesky Starter Packs: How to Find and Create Them

A company representative said in an email last month that the site has added more than one million users per day since the election. That rate equates to about 12 new users per second. The 24 million user mark compared to 9 million users in September.

And celebrities are making their Bluesky presence known, too. Star Wars star Mark Hamill recently joined the site, calling himself a “Twitter quitter.”

Bluesky may be moving on, but the site has a ways to go to catch up with competing sites. Forbes reports that X had 588 million global users as of September, down from 611 million in April. Threads, which competes with Meta on X, has more than 275 million daily users.

IX factor

Although there is no way to determine how many new users are left due to X Elon Musk’s public support for President-elect Donald Trump, many Bluesky users refer to the election in their first post. Wired reports that many fans of Taylor Swift, the group that once had the most presence in X, are switching to Bluesky.

Bluesky is a social media platform that shares many similarities with X, formerly known as Twitter. UX underwent many changes after billionaire Musk bought the site and retired blue checkmarks that indicate verified accounts, reinstated previously banned accounts and started a new registration system.

On October 16, X announced that it was changing its blocking function, which allows people to block others from seeing their messages on the site. Banned accounts can now see that person’s posts on X if the post is set to public, though they can’t reply, like or retweet it. “That doesn’t stop,” replied one X user. “That supports the search.”

The next day, on October 17, Bluesky shared a post announcing that it had received 500,000 people in just one day. “First day here,” one Bluesky user wrote in response to the company’s post about its growth. “Just getting my feet wet. I’ve been using Twitter for a long time but it’s a shell of who I was.”

IX also revised its terms of service so that any lawsuits brought by users against the service must be handled by a federal court in north Texas “whose judges often deliver victories for politically conservative plaintiffs,” the Globe and Mail reported.

These latest changes are likely to spark increased interest in Bluesky, which saw a surge in user accounts earlier this year when X was blocked by Brazilian courts (the block was later lifted when X paid a fine). According to The New York Times, users say Bluesky is the app that comes closest to simulating X.

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Here’s what you need to know about Bluesky.

How do I register?

To join, just go to the main page to create an account. You can download the Bluesky app for iOS or Android, or use Bluesky on your desktop.

It will ask for your email address and phone number (to send a verification code) and prompt you to choose a username and password. Then you’re logged in.

How does Bluesky compare to X and Threads?

If you’re familiar with X, Bluesky’s design and purpose should make sense to you.

The site uses vertical scrolling messages with small round photo avatars of users and icons below the messages that show how many comments, likes and reposts they’ve received. It looks very similar to X’s format and Meta’s Threads, which is the current No. 2 for free on the App Store, behind Bluesky.

Read more: Time to Cut Your IX (Twitter)? Here’s the Way

Who is behind you?

Here’s another Twitter/X connection: Twitter founder Jack Dorsey used to be on the board of directors, and the Bluesky project started in 2019 when he was CEO of Twitter. Jay Graber is the CEO of Bluesky.

Even Bluesky’s name is related to X’s previous name. Dorsey confirmed user Bluesky’s speculation that the name is linked to Twitter’s bird mascot, the idea being that the bird can fly more freely in the open blue sky. Dorsey left the board in May, apparently because the service added rating tools.

Although the name of the site does not have the capital S in “sky,” it is called “blue sky.” Do not rhyme with “brewski.”

The app is built on something called the authenticated transport protocol, or AT, a social media framework created by the company and made up of a network of many different sites.

And how is Bluesky different?

Domains as handles

First, you can set your domain as your handle, if you like. This would help with verification, which became a hot topic on Twitter when Musk started issuing blue checkmarks to verified accounts that refused to pay monthly fees.

“For example, a newsroom like NPR might set its handle to @npr.org,” the company’s Bluesky Social blog notes. “Then, any reporters NPR wants to verify can use subdomains to set their handle to @name.npr.org. Brand accounts can set their handle to their domain as well.”

Balance

The balance is also different. Another blog post states that Bluesky already uses automatic moderation, and has a public labeling system, described as “something like a shared silent/block list.”

Users of many social networks are shown posts from feeds selected for them by an algorithm, or you can influence that by following or blocking certain accounts. But Bluesky wants to give you a choice of different algorithms to decide what you see.

You can mute accounts, which prevents you from seeing any notifications or top posts from them, or you can block accounts, which takes that a step further, meaning you and the other account both can’t see or interact with each other’s posts. You can also report posts or accounts for abuse. The blocking option may be of particular interest to users who were unhappy with X’s recent changes to its blocking.

Several features — being able to hide replies to your posts and remove your posts from other users’ posts that quote yours — are designed to stop spam and other toxic behavior.

To keep in touch

It’s possible that creators who get a following on Bluesky may one day be able to keep in touch with their followers, even if the service itself changes.

If you want to follow people you followed on X, the third-party Sky Follower Bridge is a free tool that scans your follower list and follows accounts with similar names on Bluesky. You’ll get a few false positives and a lot of Bluesky accounts that don’t work, but overall we’ve found it to work very well.

Custom feed

Algorithms are rules that determine how content is sorted and recommended to users. Bluesky has something called a custom feed, which lets you choose an algorithm that determines what you see.

“Imagine if you want your timeline to contain only posts that you agree with, or only posts with pictures of cats, or only posts related to sports — you can simply choose your favorite feed from an open marketplace,” a blog post on the site says. he says. A longer post goes into more detail about custom feeds and algorithmic selection. Click the hashtag icon at the bottom of the app to add and receive new feeds.

Developers can use the site’s starter generator kit to create custom feeds, and the site promises that eventually, the tools will be simple enough that we can all create custom feeds.

The first packages

Want to jump right into Bluesky by following a curated list of people? You can follow starter packs, which are lists created by users and usually have a theme. CNET has a longer explanation here, but in short, they’re similar to what X calls lists, and they’re a great way to find a solid feed that caters to your interests.

Read more: It’s Easy to Find Your X (Twitter) Favorites on Bluesky. Here’s How To Do It

Updates

Onion CEO Ben Collins tweeted in April 2023, while still a tech reporter for NBC, that Bluesky “works and looks and feels like (Twitter),” and praised the “balance, desktop experience and reliability” of the site.

As of Dec. 4, the site has an average of 4.3 out of 5 stars in the Apple App Store. “It feels like the early days of Twitter, but it’s natural,” wrote one reviewer.

Who uses it?

Here’s a small list of some of the people and groups you’ll see posted on Bluesky.