A year ago, Bluesky was open to the public, but was known as one of many X competitors that emerged after Elon Musk acquired the network previously known as Twitter. Today, Bluesky's social network has grown to over 33 million users, but it is based on the technology it is built on (AT protocol (or Atproto for short).
The developers behind many of these apps took part in the first meeting dedicated to Atmosphere, an AT protocol, which took place in Seattle last weekend. So they learned what Atproto is about, the challenges that still need to be overcome, and other things they need to think about when building for this new social app ecosystem. Others took part online, viewed talks and presentations remotely, and participated in growing discrepancies chats for community members.
The Atproto community is working on rebuilding Web 2.0, an earlier version of the social web, including social media websites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites and other co-sharing sites. Except this time, the app is built on open technology and remains silent on centralized services that tend to be run by high-tech giants.
BlueSky was the first of these services, but if there is a persistence in open social web movement, it is not the last.
Below is a list of AT protocol-based consumer apps built on Bluesky or its underlying protocols, allowing users to control their social networking experiences and personal data. Many of these are still under development early on, but show future possibilities in this growing ecosystem.
This is work in progress! The app is still added. Do you feel left behind? Please email sarahp@techcrunch.com. (Note that this list focuses on consumer apps that are currently available, rather than small projects or development tools.)
Photo and video sharing app
flash
Image credit: Flash
Flashes is an Instagram alternative based on the Bluesky client, a former app by Berlin developer Sebastian Vogelsang. Released at the end of February, Flashes grabbed 30,000 downloads in its first 24 hours, offering a classic Instagram experience. Users can upload photos or videos up to 3 minutes long, up to 3 minutes thanks to updates to the BlueSky release. The app offers photo filters, curated feeds from artists, custom feeds, and portfolio modes that allow photographers to showcase their work.
spark
Image credit: Reelo
Spark (originally called Reelo) is a video first app built on top of Bluesky as well as AT protocol. This allows the app to distinguish itself with a broader set of features, including support for longer videos, filters, effects, music libraries and ultimately live streaming.
Skylight Social
Built by Seattle-based co-founders Victoria (“Tori”) White and Reed Hermeyer, Skylight is built on Blueski and offers features such as likes, follow, comments and profile pages. Users can follow the active development of the app on the co-founder's Tiktok page as the team adds more features, including video support.
The app is being tested on iOS and Android.
Image credit: Skylight Social
Pink ski
Pinksky is another of many apps trying to build an alternative to Instagram using Atproto. Built by developer Ramon Souza, the app is available on both iOS and Android, and will focus primarily on photo sharing, like Classic Instagram. The app offers similar features to Instagram, including user profiles, photo and video feeds, and a story section where 24-hour posts remain visible.
Image credit: Pink ski
Bluescreen (Tiktok alternative)
Built by Vogelsang, BlueScreen is an upcoming app focusing on videos posted to the Bluesky social network.
Bluesky videos
Bluesky's commonly named video is another app built on Bluesky by “Mszpro”, an indie Japanese developer, aka Hoshida Takiyoshi. Like everyone else, BlueSky videos allow you to view videos posted to the BlueSky social networks. A Tiktok-like user interface allows you to scroll vertically through familiar Like, Repost and Reply buttons.
Live streaming
River location
Image credit:Strerange
StreamPlace is the first live streaming video service built on top of the AT protocol. The service has recently been used for live streaming atmospheric conferences in Seattle and supports high-quality video, live streaming, clips and uploads to provide the familiar streaming experience. All video content is encrypted by the creator and respects your consent preferences. It is built on the same public key infrastructure as a distributed social network.
Founded by Eli Mallon, StreamPlace was initially supported by its former employer, LivePeer (another decentralized video platform). This allowed him to leave the river from the ground. Now he's looking at the possibility of building technology that can appeal to creators such as Twitch Streamers. Instead of splitting revenues with Twitchowner Amazon, creators like TwitchStreamers want to connect directly with their fans through their apps and websites.
Feed Builder
Graze
Graze is a startup that allows you to easily build, customize, publish and manage your BlueSky feed, and ultimately monetize it with advertising, sponsored posts and subscriptions. The service works with JetStream, aka The JetStream and aka Bluesky Firehose, which includes all public posts on social networks.
surfing
Image credits: Flipboard/surf
With Surf, Flipboard's latest app, you can build your own custom feeds from across the open web, including Bluesky as well as Mastodon, RSS and more. This means you can incorporate feeds into your surf-building custom feeds, including news articles, blog posts, podcasts, and YouTube feeds, along with social posts. You can then use Surf to view feeds and other people from the community with a variety of topics and interests. Surf is still in private beta testing, but the sign-up list is available.
Sky Feed
SkyFeed, a client like Bluesky's web-based TweetDeck, allows you to create feed and profile dashboards. However, most users will reach SkyFeed. This is because even non-developers offer an easy way to build custom feeds based on lists or repairs.
Communication/Social Discoveries
germ
Image credits: Germ
The big idea for Germ is to build a social platform that not only provides alternatives to phone messages such as signals, but also allows you to discover and connect with others for some reason. But it's where you controlled the data you were sharing, and you can stop sharing at any time.
DERM, an end-to-end encrypted messenger that can now be downloaded from the App Store, allows you to build and share multiple identities. Plus, thanks to using Apple's app clip technology, you can start chatting with someone in the germ, even if the app is not installed. This allows you to have a lightweight app experience on your iPhone before downloading the full application from the App Store.
Germ was founded by author and Stanford instructor Tessa Brown (CEO) and former Apple privacy engineer Mark Xue (CTO). The team is currently working on Bluesky Integration, which allows users to chat firmly with their Bluesky friends.
spacious
Image credit: lorey
Broedy, a peer-to-peer messaging app built on the AT protocol, resembles discrepancies in several respects, but uses open standards. For example, Atproto is used for social discovery, while Automerge is used for peer-to-peer discovery. The app is backed by funding from SkySeed and is currently using Alpha Testing.
You can log in to Roidy with your BlueSky account and join the chat by sending a message directly to other users. Note that the message is encrypted, but this is an experimental project and has not been audited. Additionally, some unencrypted metadata indicates who you are talking to, but not what those messages are. (In other words, don't swap Signal for lormy yet.)
Social trends
dazzle.fm
Image credit: dazzle.fm
Founded by former stability AI engineer John Sabath, Dazzle offers a website that means fire hose for data from BlueSky, organizes it into categories and highlights trends on a variety of topics. While much of the early discussions on Bluesky Today are politically leaning, Dazzle's site can help you find other topics and conversations.
Dazzle allows you to give instructions to tailor your site to your interests. For example, there are no posts that feature political debates, but you can ask them to point out the topic. This means you can use Dazzle to show local news, but you can maintain the experience only for those posting with positive emotions, not national politics.
The idea is that you can switch between these different modes generated using AI technology without actually building custom feeds. Instead, simply enter what you want (or don't) to an interface like chat and you can glare and reconfigure it to provide posts that match the “atmosphere” you requested.
Sil
Image credit: Sill
With Link Aggregation Service Sill, you can keep up with what everyone is talking about in one place on alternative social media sites like Bluesky and Mastodon. The service resembles the old startup Nuzzel, acquired by Twitter as part of a Scroll deal in 2021 and integrated into the Twitter app. Nuzzel was popular with News Junkies and helped users track what everyone on Twitter was talking about, reading and reshaping about the day.
Sill is also one of the early adopters to use BlueSky's OAUTH for the AT protocol instead of APP passwords, making it easier to log in. Once you connect, you will see the most shared links and the resulting conversations across the service.
Front page
Image credit: frontpage.fyi
A decentralized and federated link aggregator built on Atproto, FrontPage offers a simple interface to organize and support interesting posts and links shared across social networks. We also support comments and notifications.
Alternate Bluesky Client
Skeet
Also, with Vogelsang, Skeets is an alternative to Bluesky's main app, optimized for accessibility and works well on both iPhone and iPad.
deck.blue
Another TweetDeck-style web app, Deck.Blue, allows you to enter your screen with columns that feature home feeds, notifications, custom feeds, lists, and more. The app also supports scheduling multiple accounts and posts.
Image credit: Deck.Blue Screenshot
event
Smoke signal
Smoke Signal, an event and RSVP management system, is a bluekey alternative to things like EventBrite and Facebook events. Built on top of Atproto, Smoke Signal supports OAuth, allowing users to discover communities, create RSVPs for events, and allow RSVPs to hold their own personal data.
Image credit: Smoke signal
Blog
White wind
The Markdown blog service of White Wind, an AT protocol, logs in using your ATProto account before writing in Markdown. The service includes tools that are all stored in your account's PDS (Personal Data Service) such as uploading images, previewing posts, and more. When you post to Bluesky, these replies will be automatically included in your blog.
Image credit: White Wind
analysis
Blueskyhunter
Bluesky's growth and analytics toolset, Blueskyhunter also offers ways to take advantage of social network trends. One section of the app called Viral Posts introduces more popular posts. This helps content planners take up trends and memes and find templates that are popular with other users who can adopt them.
Fedica
Fedica offers online dashboards that allow you to create and schedule posts across social networks such as Bluesky, Threads, X, Mastodon, and Pixelfed. It also supports more traditional social apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Pinterest and YouTube. The plan includes various features for social listening, hashtags, keywords, tools to track postreach, and features for follower analysis.