The major developments that demonstrate the potential of Open Social Web were announced on Thursday at an online meeting known as the Fediforum.
The makers of Bridgy Fed, a tool for connecting decentralized open social networks such as Mastodon and Bluesky, have developed a new project called Bounce, which allows users to migrate social network followers across networks with different protocols.
This is an important step to making the open social web of the lock-in ecosystem offered by high-tech giants like Meta, SNAP, Google, Tiktok and X a more viable alternative. You can also delete your account and delete your data and export it, but it doesn't actually migrate your account to the new app.
Today, social services in which Mastodon, Bluesky and other social services run on protocols (ActivityPub and the AT protocols) allow users to move accounts within the protocol network.
This means that Mastodon users can migrate their accounts to another Mastodon server, but with BlueSky users can move their accounts and data from one personal data server (PDS) to another individual. (The latter is a work in progress as you can move away from Bluesky's PDS, but haven't returned to it!)
However, users were unable to move their accounts or retain followers by moving from one network to another.
The makers of Bridgy Fed, now headed by a nonprofit called the New Social, have developed a technology that will allow this type of transition.
Image credit: Bridgy Fed diagram (New Social)
Based on Bridgy Fed, tech allows users to “movement” BlueSky accounts to the Bridged account in the Mastodon Profile (he listens to Mastodon posts and then replicates them to be viewed by BlueSky followers, then retrieves the bridged account and “movement” into the user's Mastodon profile.
Both platforms handle migrations differently, so how this works under the hood is technically complicated. So, Bridgy Fed must act like a mediator, allowing for migration with its own servers and is custom built for bridges and movement purposes.
Currently, proof of concept technology will be in beta in a few weeks, but not for casual users.
“I don't want to go as long as I say it's a tech demo, but it was really important to prove that this was possible,” says Anujiahuya, CEO and executive director of New Social.
There are also some complications currently. Social networks are not yet building that technology for starters, so they can't go back to Bluesky's PD.
Also, if someone from Bluesky is interacting with your “moving” account, you won't see it if you're on the Mastodon side. However, the team is working on developing a feature that notifies bridges of bridges that are notified of bridge interactions, says Ahooja.
Additionally, Bounce warns you how many of the people you follow are not bridged.
Image credit: Bounce screenshot (New Social)
Ultimately, the team wants bounce technology to be obscure from everyday open social users, and can simply decide which app they want to use instead, and take a few short steps to move the follow.
And today, Bounce supports Bluesky, Mastodon, and Pixelfed (ActivityPub-based photo sharing apps), but the long-term goal is to support open social platforms and protocols, whether it's a long-form blogging platform like Ghost or other networks like those running on NOSTR or Farecaster.
“We're trying to create an interface for the open social web and handle some of these tough moves,” explained Ahooja. “So if you're unhappy with what Bluesky is doing, or if you're not unhappy, you feel that the platform on the ActivityPub side is doing what you really need to do…[you could] You make these few clicks on the bounce,” he added.
Bounce is the third project from the new social. In addition to Bridgy Fed, the organization launched its settings page a few weeks ago. This makes it easier to prepare bridges and allows you to set up custom domains for your account.
The overall goal with the new social is to bring the power of social networks back to people rather than platform makers. It's about giving them the tools to move their accounts, following them and leaving if the platform fails in any way.
This “People Not Platforms” motto, along with Patreon, is adorned with new social cell merchandise, including T-shirts, hoodies, hats, cups and stickers, that help monetize their efforts.