Decentralized Twitter/X rival Bluesky is increasing its standing by acquiring members of the developer community. London-based software engineer Samuel Newman, who built his popular third-party Bluesky client Graysky, has joined the startup and, along with the rest of his frontend team, will be working on Bluesky's official website. It will support the development of the app.
Given his change in position, the future of the Graysky app is uncertain. Newman said he will keep the app alive and well maintained for the time being, but will not be adding any “ambitious new features” in the future as he is committed to “making the official app the best it can be.” He said no.
But he is also fielding inquiries from other developers who might be interested in taking over the Graysky app, if Bluesky scales up to become a major competitor to Twitter/X, Threads, and Mastodon. It could be a promising business for someone. Since going public last month after an extended private beta, Bluesky now has 5.18 million registered users, about half of whom are actively posting on the platform.
What made Graysky unique, beyond being one of Bluesky's first third-party apps and the first to support both iOS and Android users, was its forward-thinking nature. . The app improves the default by adding support for features that were missing from the official client, such as GIFs, inline translation, an easy way to see everyone's likes, a feed-first layout, and support for hashtags. We've improved the Bluesky experience for you. Late last year, Graysky also added Trending Topics and Pro subscriptions to help you monetize your app. As of the end of 2023, Graysky had over 20,000 downloads and was working on adding Twitter-like features such as drafts, bookmarks, muted words, polls, and lists.
With Newman joining Bluesky, it is expected that the official client will also support more features. The developer said that while it won't be possible to port everything from Graysky to Bleusky, it will do its best to “port some of the good parts.” He said he specifically wants to work on an iPad app.