Since Bluesky has been The service’s popularity skyrocketed, reaching over 20 million customers in no time, with a staggering daily growth rate of nearly one million users. Over the past year, amidst the fallout from the tumultuous 2024 US presidential election, an unprecedented number of people have chosen to exit X.
Instead, they’re abandoning Meta’s Threads and opting for Bluesky, a novel alternative on the block.
Rise of Bluesky
As users increasingly opt for the sleeker, more streamlined interface of Bluesky over the feature-rich but cluttered experience offered by Threads, the reasons behind this shift become all the more intriguing. Some users might genuinely appreciate Bluesky’s appearance and functionality, while others might avoid it solely because it is a Meta-owned platform, seeking to distance themselves from the perceived influence of Mark Zuckerberg and his company. The meteoric ascent of Bluesky appears to be unsettling Meta.
Since Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in October 2022, several alternative social media platforms have gained popularity among users seeking to diversify their online presence, including Mastodon, Pebble (formerly known as T2), Bluesky, Threads, Hive Social, Publish.Information, and even Tumblr. Between the options, many outfits both completely collapsed or failed to gain recognition; some were struggling to stay afloat, while only a few, such as Threads, had a glimmer of hope to emerge as a viable alternative. Till now.
Meta’s social media platform, Threads, had surged to over 200 million users since its debut in July 2023, leading them to likely believe they possessed a formidable “Twitter-like” alternative. While Threads had once been a thriving social media platform, its corporate team had failed to invest sufficient resources in genuinely understanding and serving their users’ needs.
I’ve never been fond of the fact that Threads doesn’t allow me to easily switch my default feed from “For You” to “Following”. While Instagram’s Threads feature achieves a similar outcome, it also conceals the feed switcher by default, necessitating users to tap on the Threads logo at the top to reveal this menu. They actually required your participation in For You’s features.
Each issue is now uniquely addressed, with the prominent display of the feed switcher and the option to set Following as the default feed by design.
Although these are seemingly minor options, Threads could have introduced them at any moment, yet deliberately chose not to. Now, these options are likely to make the platform even more engaging.
Copying Bluesky options
Recently, Threads has replicated several Bluesky features, including personalized feeds and starter kits. By utilizing customized feeds, you can curate a feed focused on a specific subset of users, enabling streamlined monitoring of a single topic or community. Starter packs provide a convenient way to harmonize with a collective of individuals who share a common understanding. The two options that had driven Bluesky’s advancement were simplicity in curation and the ability to create an engaging feed.
Starter packs aren’t staying on threads fairly; however, the characteristic has already been bypassed by reverse engineers. Are they already staying on threads for all customers?
Competitors is an effective factor
While it’s uncertain which platform will ultimately emerge victorious in this “Twitter-like” competition, one clear standout is that Bluesky and Threads are the primary rivals vying for dominance. Ultimately, I’m indifferent to which platform emerges victorious; the intense competition between them is what truly matters. Why wouldn’t Meta immediately prioritize integrating key personnel’s specialized skills into Threads unless there was a compelling reason to do so?
