Bluesky will be getting “communities” sometime this year, which will act as small spaces where you can “dive deeper and hang out with people who care about the same things,” according to product lead Alex Benzer. They will be built on the decentralized AT protocol that underpins Bluesky, with Benzer saying that “it’s a new architecture for everyone” that is part of the “atmosphere” (a shorthand for AT protocol ecosystem).
Benzer listed “some of the ideas we’ve come up with so far” in a thread. “On Bluesky, you’ll be able to create communities, join them, post in them, and receive updates,” says Benzer. “The core features on Bluesky remain simple. The magic also comes from the communities that exist on the open web. This means you can really customize them and add features with other atmospheric apps and tools.”
According to Benzer, communities will get a handle that “doubles as a URL” and if you visit that URL, you will “be taken to a custom homepage for the community”. “Builders can also host completely custom experiences instead.” There will be three levels of privacy for communities: public, invite-only, and private. And each community will have its own feed, Benzer says.
Benzer’s source comes after Bluesky COO Rose Wang said last week that the company wanted to move away from the “public square” and was “heavily inspired by companies like Reddit.” Meta Threads is currently testing a community feature, while X announced in April that it would be shutting down its own moderation of communities.
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