Bluesky is my favorite Twitter clone
Bluesky is my favorite “Twitter clone” yet. It’s really fun.
Sure, the platform is literally just a decentralized version of Twitter. And sure, Bluesky is one of a few services that are emulating what Twitter achieves and how it looks. But the Jack Dorsey-backed Bluesky is the most fun you’ll have on any Twitter lookalike.
Similar to Mastodon, Bluesky is a federated social network. In simple terms, that just means that you can sign up via different web servers or providers instead of a big central provider. Think of it like your email: you can choose between Gmail, Yahoo or even AOL. For example, I use iCloud, can send an email to someone with a Gmail address, and they’ll reply back.
When prompted to sign up (you need an invite code for now), you can choose your server. It seems like the only current server available is Bluesky’s own default server: bsky.social. I set up a username: @bradlaplante.bsky.social (I’ll explain this in a moment).
After signing up, I found the main feed: the following tab. It’s empty. Thankfully, Bluesky has a huge user base that hit one million shortly after I signed up. Plenty of the app’s users now are developers and those have been the ones I’ve followed most. I’m slowly finding new faces to follow and users who have interesting things to share.
One of the most fun is Paul Frazee, a developer at Bluesky. He’s always sharing fun updates on the app and replying to user concerns. In one Halloween-themed post, he says, “PSA to Bluesky users: the zombie infection has begun. Be on the lookout for (zombie emoji) in display names as that may be a sign you’re interacting with a biter.”
CNN anchor Jake Tapper has an interesting headline on his profile that reads, “long-suffering Philly sports fan.” Yes, it’s really him.
The “what’s hot” section had a few key moments:
A photo of a Minnesota college football fan yawning as his team was actively losing 38-10 to Michigan
One post that read, “my kid asked why Bryce Harper gets to swing on any 3-0 pitch he wants…and my answer is ‘because he’s Bryce Harper’”
A few users arguing whether or not Pepsi and Coke are the same
Other feeds to enjoy: Blacksky, amplifying the voices of Black users; a “for you” feed; a Formula 1 feed; and more. Users can create and add any feeds they would like.
What might prove difficult is keeping the atmosphere positive. But the platform’s AT Protocol is designed for that. It is still in development, but this means that I could potentially transfer my account and username to a different server or provider and hang out in a different domain. If I don’t like it there, I can just leave.
Bluesky’s verification system is a handy service too. For example, I just changed my username to @bradlaplante.me, referencing my domain name that I own. To do this, users can just add some text to their domain’s DNS profile. In the future, theoretically, I could be able to change it to @bradlaplante.statenews.com, to show that I am a working journalist at The State News. This solves plenty of verification problems other sites have had.
It’s too early to tell if Bluesky will have the same success as Twitter or even like Mastodon has right now. But it’s still really fun to scroll and enjoy.