An important step has been achieved towards a more interoperable “Fediverse” – a broader network of decentralized social media apps like Mastodon, Bluesky and others. Now, users of decentralized apps like Mastodon powered by the ActivityPub protocol, or apps powered by Bluesky's AT protocol, can easily follow users on other networks, see their posts, like, reply and repost them.
These same people will also be able to see other people's posts.
The technology that makes this possible is Bridgy Fed, one of several efforts aimed at connecting the Fediverse with other networks like the web, Bluesky, and perhaps in the future Nostr.
Interest in decentralized social media has grown since Twitter was sold to Elon Musk in 2022 and the app was rebranded “X.” In the wake of Twitter's new ownership, apps like Mastodon have gained traction as users explore what a decentralized network looks like. Meanwhile, Twitter-born startup Bluesky raised a seed round and has grown its network to more than 5.7 million users since it went public earlier this year.
Other decentralized social media networks are gaining their own foothold: Blockchain-based Farcaster just closed a $150 million funding round last month from Paradigm, a16z crypto, Haun Ventures, USV and others.
There's just one problem these networks face in gaining traction against rivals like X and Meta's Threads: users can't talk to each other.
Both Mastodon and Bluesky are decentralized social media efforts, but they use different underlying protocols, which means that Mastodon users can interact with other users who post elsewhere in the Fediverse, i.e. other apps that use the older ActivityPub social networking protocol, but cannot interact with users who post on Bluesky, because Bluesky operates using the newer AT protocol.
Software developer Ryan Barrett has been working to solve this problem with Bridgy Fed, a social networking bridge that connects Fediverse users with Blue Sky users.
The issue initially sparked controversy over the planned opt-out nature of the bridge, but Barrett listened to community feedback and has made both sides of the bridge opt-in for the time being.
But in future, only Bluesky users may be able to opt out. “The norms and expectations there are somewhat different than in the Fediverse,” he told TechCrunch.
Bridgy Fed itself soft launched in mid-April and moved to a full launch over the last month, and is now one of a number of initiatives bridging networks in the fediverse, joining Sasquatch, pinhole, RSS Parrot, mostr.pub, and SkyBridge, many of which aren't as fully interactive as Bridgy.
How to use Bridgy Fed
Using Bridgy Fed is super easy: Firstly, it only works with public accounts and public posts, so you don't have to worry about your private or follower-only posts being duplicated elsewhere.
To bridge an account from Fediverse to Bluesky, simply follow the Mastodon account @bsky.brid.gy@bsky.brid.gy. The account will follow you back, and Bluesky users will automatically be provided with a new bridge account with their Fediverse/Mastodon handle (with the second @ as a dot) followed by “ap.brid.gy”.
For example, if my Mastodon account is @sarahp@mastodon.social, then my bridge account would be @sarahp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy.
(Yes, it's wordy, but it works!)
Image credit: Bluesky Screenshot from Bridge Account
Conversely, if you want to bridge your Bluesky account to Fediverse, follow the @ap.brid.gy account on Bluesky, and likewise, Fediverse will provide you with a bridged version of your Bluesky account, in this case in the format @.[handle]@bsky.brid.gy.
So if my Bluesky account is @sarahp@bsky.social, my bridge account will be @sarahp.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy. Mastodon will also label it as an “automatic” account so users know it's a bridge account.
All interactions with fediverse users from your Bluesky account will be bridged, including replies, @mentions, likes, reports, and even your own Bluesky posts if you have fediverse followers, and vice versa.
To be clear, this is not the same as crossposting, where you post once using software and it's published to all of your connected accounts. Instead, it's like setting up a mirror of your feed on another platform, allowing you to engage with people on another social network, helping you reach a wider audience.
Both bridges from fediverse to Bluesky (and vice versa) are still in early beta testing, so you may experience issues, bugs, downtime, and other problems at this time.
Barrett says Bridgy Fed has more plans, including introducing prompts to make it easier to discover: “If you try to follow someone you're not yet bridged with, you'll be sent a DM asking you to opt in. We're waiting on Bluesky's upcoming OAuth support for that,” he said.
The bridge currently works with Fediverse servers like Mastodon, Friendica, Misskey, PeerTube, and Hubzilla, as well as Bluesky and users' own websites. In the future, the bridge will also build support for Nostr, the decentralized social service favored by Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey.