In 2024, Bluesky experienced a remarkable explosion in growth, establishing itself as a hotspot for users migrating from X, previously known as Twitter. An impressive 22.9 million individuals decided to make Bluesky their new digital home this year. Astonishingly, over 13 million of these new members hopped aboard in the past month and a half alone.
This wave of new sign-ups was revealed in Bluesky’s annual wrap-up, released just before year-end. The blog post celebrated several accomplishments, notably the transition from an invitation-only system to a fully public platform. "Initially, we welcomed an eager community of 3 million people at launch. Within a week, that number grew by over a million," Bluesky proudly shared.
In addition to opening its doors to everyone, Bluesky achieved a significant milestone with the introduction of federation. This feature allows users to operate their personal data servers instead of relying solely on Bluesky’s infrastructure, paving the way for a truly connected social network.
Flashback to this time last year, Bluesky was quite barebones. However, 2024 saw a series of important enhancements, including the arrival of hashtags, direct messages, video sharing, and trending topics. These additions were vital, aligning Bluesky with essential features found on major social media sites and solidifying its position as a competitor to platforms like X.
Moreover, Bluesky introduced a nifty feature called starter packs in 2024. This unique functionality allows users to curate a list of accounts to follow easily. Take, for instance, our very own Windows Central starter pack—a selection of our staff members on the platform, ready for you to explore.
As the exodus from X continues, along with the quest for a less toxic social media environment than what’s often found on Instagram and Facebook, Bluesky has become a welcoming refuge for millions. Adding to the buzz are third-party Bluesky apps available on Windows 11, such as Beeskie and DarkSky, along with deck.blue, a site reminiscent of TweetDeck’s interface.
Bluesky rounded off the year by highlighting all the fresh features it rolled out in 2024.
Bluesky 2024 Updates: Big Features
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Hashtags: We made content discovery easier with hashtags.
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Direct Messages: Introduced in May, DMs opened up new lines of communication.
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Starter Packs: Launched in June, starter packs streamline community onboarding to Bluesky.
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Video Sharing: Videos became available in September.
- Trending Topics: Rolled out just in time for Christmas in December.
Bluesky 2024 Updates: Small Features
Among the smaller but no less impactful features were account deactivation (introduced in June), priority notifications (July), and self-moderation tools like detaching quotes and hiding replies (August). October saw the arrival of pinned posts, followed by the introduction of the thread composer in November.
