A fresh wave of X chaos appears to have revitalized interest in alternative platforms.
Bluesky, a Jack Dorsey-backed X rival, saw a spike in new users the day after Elon Musk proposed introducing a paywall for the platform. Musk said on Monday he was considering the move to combat bots on the platform.
According to the tracking site Bluesky Stats, the platform saw a record increase of 53,585 users from September 18 to 19 following the billionaire's announcement. At the time of writing, Bluesky had already added another 13,572 new users on Wednesday, per the tracking site.
This is not the first time the X rival has appeared to benefit from some of Musk's erratic policy changes.
Earlier this summer, Bluesky said in a post on the platform it was dealing with "record-high traffic" the same day Musk announced a temporary limit on the number of tweets X users can view. Bluesky had to temporarily pause new sign-ups in response to the surge of interest.
"We will temporarily be pausing Bluesky sign-ups while our team continues to resolve the existing performance issues," Bluesky wrote in a post on the platform at the time. "We'll keep you updated when invite codes will resume functionality."
Bluesky is a popular platform with a very similar format to its established rival.
The platform has already lured in X celebs Dril and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and people have been scrambling to follow.
Bluesky has been available on Apple's app store since February, but more recently added an Android and beta web version.
According to Bluesky CEO Jay Graber, 1.2 million people were on the platform's waitlist, following Musk's X takeover.
How it works
Bluesky users set up a profile by choosing a picture, bio, display name, and domain name. Once on the app, they can post, repost, and like and reply to other users. There's also a search tab to find others and the platform suggests people to follow that are "in your network."
Bluesky's timeline is split into two feeds — posts from users an account is following, and a "What's Hot" section that displays popular posts. Unlike most alternatives, the app doesn't have any direct messaging features or hashtags.
The app is still in the early stages and is only available to users with an invite or on the waiting list. The invite codes are usually given out once every two weeks, although a representative for Bluesky said on the platform the team would occasionally "arbitrarily" hand out extra invite codes to activate more users.
Bluesky has been compared with Mastodon, an earlier X alternative. Both platforms are decentralized, meaning user data is not stored on servers owned by one company. However, unlike Mastodon, users don't have to choose a server when they sign up — something that appeared to be an issue for Mastodon users who found the process too complicated.
Bluesky began in 2019 while Dorsey was still CEO of X and initially received funding from the company it now seeks to rival.
In April last year, Bluesky clarified the company's relationship to X, saying: "The bluesky project originated with Twitter in 2019, but the Bluesky PBLLC established this year is an independent company focused on decentralized social network R&D."
