This project, launched in 2019 by Jack Dorsey, one of the founders of Twitter, was designed as a decentralized social network and attracted attention as an application that aims to keep users’ data and privacy under better control. Bluesky first developed an application to rival X (Twitter). He made a name for himself.
Now, its goal is to attract those who want to switch from Meta’s social media application ecosystem to a more open alternative.
An independent developer is developing a photo sharing app called Flashes for Bluesky. This upcoming app runs on AT Protocol, the same technology that powers Bluesky, and was built using code from Skeets, the developer’s previous Bluesky client.
In recent years, consumer demand for decentralized and open source social media platforms has been increasing. Mastodon and Bluesky are major players in this space, offering their users an escape from the monopolized structure of platforms like Meta. The arrival of Flashes, built on the same AT Protocol, will contribute to further acceleration of this trend.
THE DEVELOPER BEHIND FLASHES
Flashes is the work of Berlin-based developer Sebastian Vogelsang, who previously attracted attention with his application called Skeets. Vogelsang’s first attempt at creating applications for the Bluesky social network, which now has more than 27.5 million users, also inspired this new project. While Bluesky offers its own official mobile client, Skeets has carved out a niche for itself by focusing on iPad users and offering special accessibility features for blind and low vision users.
Vogelsang realized the potential to create a photography-focused application using the same code base. He restructured Skeets for users interested in visual content and took inspiration from existing photo-sharing platforms such as Meta’s Instagram.
“I thought about the idea of having one main social graph and then different apps choosing what they wanted to show from that graph,” Vogelsang said in an interview with TechCrunch. This vision enables a variety of user experiences within a unified social network.
PHOTO AND VIDEO SHARING
At launch, Flashes will support sharing of up to four photos and up to one minute of video, just like Bluesky. Posts made on Flashes will also appear on Bluesky, and comments will sync across both platforms. Flashes will also support Bluesky’s direct messaging feature.
To differentiate, Flashes filters Bluesky’s timeline to highlight photo and video posts. Vogelsang also plans to add metadata to Flashes posts, so Bluesky users will have options to manage photo posts in the main app if something goes wrong.
“IT WILL NOT COPY INSTAGRAM FEATURES”
Flashes aims to attract new users who don’t consider themselves traditional “Twitter people.” Vogelsang emphasizes that Flashes is not an Instagram clone and will not copy all Instagram features. However, it offers a fresh alternative in keeping with Bluesky’s decentralized ethos.
Leveraging Skeets’ existing user base provides a promising basis for the launch of Flashes. Skeets has been downloaded more than 30,500 times so far, and this ready user base could be critical to the early adoption and success of Flashes.
Flashes represents a significant step in the evolution of open source social media platforms. By catering to users’ visual content preferences while maintaining Bluesky’s decentralized framework, Flashes exemplifies the potential of independent development within a unified social ecosystem.