Recently, Bluesky has experienced remarkable growth. It surged past 20 million users, at one point attracting over a million new users daily. Factors like the ban on X in Brazil earlier this year and the aftermath of the 2024 US presidential election have resulted in a significant number of users departing from X.
Interestingly, many of these users are not transitioning to Meta’s Threads, which was initially the more popular alternative, but are instead opting for Bluesky.
The Emergence of Bluesky
There appears to be a preference for Bluesky over Threads for various reasons. Users may be drawn to Bluesky’s aesthetic or simply prefer not to engage with another platform owned by Meta and Mark Zuckerberg. Regardless, Bluesky’s rapid ascent seems to be causing concern for Meta.
Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022, several alternatives have surfaced, including Mastodon, Pebble (formerly T2), Bluesky, Threads, Hive Social, Post.news, and even Tumblr. Many of these options either shut down or struggled to gain traction, and for a time, Threads looked like it would dominate as the sole credible alternative. But that perception is changing.
Threads amassed over 200 million users since its launch in July 2023, leading Meta to believe they had secured the “Twitter alternative” space. However, while Threads is a viable platform, the company seemed to lack genuine effort in catering to user needs.
For instance, I have always found it frustrating that Threads did not allow users to set their default feed from “For You” to “Following.” While X employs a similar restriction, Threads hid the feed switcher by default, forcing users to click on the Threads logo at the top to access that menu. They clearly wanted users to utilize “For You.”
Now, that’s changing; the feed switcher is now prominently displayed, and Threads is “testing” the option to set “Following” as the default feed.
These may seem like minor enhancements that Threads could have introduced at any time, but they have only begun to appear, likely aimed at making the platform more enticing.
Adopting Bluesky Features
Recently, Threads has adopted several features from Bluesky, such as custom feeds and starter packs. Custom feeds enable users to create a feed based on a specific group, making it easier to follow particular topics or communities. Starter packs assist users in quickly following groups of people sharing a common interest. These functionalities have been essential to Bluesky’s growth, enhancing the user experience by curating an engaging feed.
While starter packs are not yet active on Threads, they have already been uncovered by reverse engineers. In contrast, custom feeds appear to be fully operational for all Threads users.
The Value of Competition
Ultimately, it remains uncertain who will prevail in the race for “Twitter alternative” dominance, but it’s evident that Bluesky and Threads are the frontrunners. Personally, I don’t have a preference for which platform comes out on top, but this scenario exemplifies how competition can be beneficial. If Meta had no strong reason, they wouldn’t hastily implement significant user experience improvements on Threads.
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