Social media platform Bluesky is weighing the launch of several new features that would likely be baked into a premium plan, according to information spotted on the company’s official Github repository.
The features and subscription were presented in a mock-up that was posted online last week, and are still available on Github today. The mock-up calls for Bluesky to sell a subscription-based add-on, tentatively called Bluesky Plus (stylized as Bluesky+), that could cost $8 per month or $72 per year and include longer video uploads, custom app icons, profile badges and other features.
A Bluesky employee in control of the mock-up posted to Github warned that the subscription and associated features are only being kicked around their office — no deployment is scheduled, and nothing is definitive.
But the draft found on Bluesky’s Github indicates the company has brought revenue-generation to the front of mind, something that was likely necessitated by its explosive growth over the past few months. As of last week, Bluesky has 24 million registered accounts, and some analysts say the company has between 3 million and 5 million daily active users.
While those numbers might pale in comparison to larger, more-veteran platforms like Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram and TikTok, for Bluesky — an app that was accessible through invitation only until February — the momentum is taken as a sign that the platform not only works, but has staying power.
Bluesky’s main social network, called Bluesky Social, is built on the AT Protocol, an open standard communications system. Bluesky positions itself as a decentralized social network that anyone can deploy on their own and hook into Bluesky Social, though some industry observers say it is more centralized than its next nearest competitor, Mastodon.
“Part of the concern I have with Bluesky presently is thus that people are gaining the impression that it’s a decentralized system in ways that it is not,” Christine Lemmer-Webber, a developer who worked on open communication protocol ActivityPub, wrote in a blog post last month. While Lemmer-Webber questions whether Bluesky Social is really decentralized, she did indicate that Bluesky Social is still building something useful: A replacement for Twitter.
Most new accounts on Bluesky over the past month appear to be users who have grown disinterested in Twitter following the outcome of the 2024 presidential election — X owner Elon Musk was a financial backer of Trump’s campaign, and has become a close advisor in the weeks since the election. Threads, another Twitter alternative, offers many of the same features, but its reliance on an algorithm, its connection to other platforms owned by parent company Meta (like Facebook and Instagram) and difficulties in building an audience have made Bluesky the better option for some people.
To that point, Bluesky offers many of the same features as Twitter and Threads, including support for hashtags, video uploads, GIFs and direct messages. While it doesn’t offer private accounts, it does give users greater control over the content they see in their social media feeds, to include full blocking of accounts, words and phrases that they do not want to encounter.
