Recently, Bluesky has seen significant growth, rapidly attracting more than 20 million users. At one stage, the platform was gaining over a million new users daily. The ban on X in Brazil earlier this year, coupled with events surrounding the 2024 US presidential election, has motivated many to move away from X.
Interestingly, users are not transitioning to Meta’s Threads, which was previously the favored alternative to X, but are choosing Bluesky instead.
Bluesky’s Ascendance
There are various reasons why people seem to prefer Bluesky over Threads. It might be due to Bluesky’s appealing interface or a desire to avoid supporting another Meta-owned platform. Regardless, Bluesky’s rapid growth appears to be unsettling Meta.
Since Elon Musk took over Twitter in October 2022, a variety of alternatives have emerged, including Mastodon, Pebble (formerly T2), Bluesky, Threads, Hive Social, Post.news, and even Tumblr. While some of these platforms have either ceased operations or struggled to gain traction, Threads seemed poised to dominate until now.
Threads reached over 200 million users following its launch in July 2023, leading Meta to believe they had the “Twitter alternative” landscape secured. Although Threads was a usable platform, the company had not invested significantly in enhancing user experience.
A notable example is the inability for users to set their default feed from ‘For You’ to ‘Following.’ While X has a similar limitation, Threads complicates the process by hiding the feed switcher, which users can only access by tapping on the Threads logo. The intention appeared clear: they wanted users to engage with ‘For You’ exclusively.
Fortunately, this is changing; the feed switcher is now prominently displayed, and Threads is currently “testing” the option to make ‘Following’ the default feed.
These enhancements are relatively minor but could have been implemented at any point—now they are here, likely aimed at making Threads more appealing.
Adopting Bluesky Features
Recently, Threads has also adopted several features from Bluesky, such as custom feeds and starter packs. Custom feeds enable users to curate a feed centered on a specific group or topic, streamlining the tracking of communities. Starter packs make it easier to follow a collection of users with shared interests. These functionalities have been pivotal to Bluesky’s expansion and user engagement.
Although starter packs are not yet active on Threads, evidence of their development has surfaced through reverse engineering. Conversely, custom feeds are already live for all Threads users.
The Benefits of Competition
Ultimately, the outcome of the “Twitter alternative” competition remains uncertain, but one thing is evident: Bluesky and Threads are the primary players in this arena. Personally, I’m indifferent regarding which platform emerges victorious; it’s a clear example of how competition fosters positive change. Meta likely wouldn’t be prioritizing user experience improvements on Threads without the pressure from Bluesky.
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