Bluesky, the decentralized alternative to Twitter coming from Jack Dorsey’s workshop, is now available for Android users.
The app, which launched on Apple’s App Store in February, runs on an open source standard for social media called the AT protocol(opens in a new tab), started in 2019 as a Twitter-funded side project (opens in a new tab)when Dorsey was still the CEO of Twitter.
The idea behind the protocol, Dorsey said at the time, is to create a decentralized standard for social media, similar to other internet standards such as SMTP (the standard which powers email). Back then, Dorsey said the goal was for Twitter to “ultimately be a client of this standard,” though it was not meant to be: Dorsey since stepped down as CEO and Twitter was ultimately acquired by Elon Musk in 2022.
Bluesky is currently only available to folks with an invite code, but those that have seen behind the curtain say that it’s quite similar to Twitter(opens in a new tab). The company-provided screenshots of the Android version of the app do not stray too much from that; in fact, the app is still perhaps a bit too much of a Twitter clone, down to the “Following” news feed variant.
The (limited) launch of Bluesky follows other Twitter alternatives which gained prominence ever since Musk took over and started firing people and changing things, including Mastodon and Hive.
You can get Bluesky on Google Play(opens in a new tab), but you will need that invite code to access it. To get one, hop onto the waitlist by submitting your email on the official website.
