Bluesky Unveils Group Chats: A Move Toward Community Focus

Bluesky, the social network founded by Mastodon creator Paul Perrault and backed by The Blueness Foundation, has just rolled out support for group chats in its latest update (v1.124). This move comes as a strategic shift from individual posts to more community-oriented interactions, positioning Bluesky to compete with larger platforms like X.

The new feature allows groups of up to 50 people to communicate privately on the platform. Group chat creators can manage who is allowed to participate and share an invite link that can be embedded in Bluesky posts as a card. Chat participants also have control over who can join, with options ranging from open access to invites only or restricted to followers.

While group chats are now available, the platform notes that sharing media within these groups is not supported at this time due to additional safety and moderation requirements. However, Bluesky has hinted at potential future improvements in this area.

The Shift in Strategy

This update marks a significant change in Bluesky's focus from a broad social network to more community-driven interactions. According to Alex Benzer, the head of product for Bluesky, communities will be smaller spaces within the app where users can delve deeper into shared interests.

“Today, Bluesky is one big space. Communities will be smaller spaces inside that where you can go deeper and hang out with people who care about the same stuff,” Benzer explained in a recent post. He also highlighted plans to build more community features on the underlying protocol (AT Proto) with support from the broader developer ecosystem.

Comparison with X

In comparison, while X has recently launched its own stand-alone chat app called XChat, Bluesky is still catching up. The limit of 50 participants in group chats on Bluesky currently stands in contrast to the larger platform's support for groups with up to 1,000 members.

Bluesky’s strategy also involves providing more control and ownership over community experiences. For example, communities on Bluesky will have their own handle that doubles as a URL, similar to Facebook Groups or Reddit forums. They can be set as public, invite-only, or private, giving users more flexibility in how they interact.

Future Prospects

Bluesky is positioning itself as an alternative for those seeking control over their online community experience. The move towards group chats and communities comes at a time when X has scaled back its Communities feature due to low usage and spam concerns.

With this update, Bluesky aims to attract users who are looking for more open technologies where they feel they have greater control. As the platform continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how these community features develop and whether they can indeed provide a viable alternative to larger, more established social networks.