Bluesky is a decentralized microblogging social media service primarily operated by Bluesky Social PBC, a public benefit corporation based in the United States. It was created as a reference implementation for the AT Protocol, a communication protocol for decentralized social networking. Similar to Twitter, users can share short text messages, images, and videos in short posts colloquially known as "skeets".
Bluesky Social claims the social app was "designed to not be controlled by a single company" through the use of the AT Protocol as its foundation, promoting a composable user experience and "algorithmic choice" as core features of Bluesky. The platform offers a "marketplace of algorithms" where users can choose or create algorithmic feeds, user-managed moderation and labelling services, and user-made "starter packs" that allow users to quickly follow a large number of related accounts within a community or subculture. The AT Protocol offers a domain name-based handle system within Bluesky, allowing users to self-verify an account's legitimacy and identity by proving ownership of a domain name through a DNS text record or HTTPS page.
Bluesky began in 2019 as a research initiative at Twitter, led by then-CEO Jack Dorsey, to explore decentralizing the platform. In August 2021, Jay Graber was hired to lead the Bluesky project and development of what is now the AT Protocol, with initial funding provided by Twitter. Jack Dorsey left Bluesky Social's board by May 2024. After the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk in October 2022, Twitter severed all legal and financial ties with Bluesky Social, leading to the rapid development of the Bluesky social app and the AT Protocol as a minimum viable product. Bluesky launched as an invite-only beta in February 2023. In February 2024, the social app opened registration to the public, having reached around 3 million users by that time. It became publicly federated later that month, allowing for third-party services on the AT Protocol to operate with Bluesky data.
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