Bluesky AMA: Verification, community notes, bookmarks, trends, drafts, private accounts, and more on the horizon

Bluesky recently landed on Reddit for their first-ever AMA (Ask Me Anything), and boy, did they bring the tea! Paul and Emily from the Bluesky team tackled questions from curious users who are watching the app grow like a well-watered Chia Pet. With 22 million users flocking to the platform, largely thanks to the post-election X fatigue, the team is busier than ever, juggling feature requests, keeping bots at bay, and dreaming big about decentralization. Here’s a breakdown of the highlights that came out of the AMA.

Bluesky’s rapid growth isn’t just a vanity metric — it’s a challenge. When asked how the team was handling the massive influx of users, Emily didn’t mince words: “To put it lightly, we’re all a lot busier.” Adding over a million users a day during the U.S. election period was no small feat. Emily credited their backend team for keeping the lights on and the servers humming, while the Trust and Safety squad had prepped well in advance to ensure the app didn’t buckle under pressure.

While there was no mention of Spaces, users who miss the good ol’ days of Twitter’s trending topics and live updates will be happy to hear that Bluesky has plans to make breaking news and real-time crisis communication seamless. “You can already search by hashtag within the app, and we plan to have trending topics as well,” she shared, emphasizing their importance during emergencies or breaking news. She highlighted how custom feeds were created during Hurricane Milton to track discussions about the disaster, hinting at the platform’s potential for real-time information sharing.

As for drafts, Emily admitted there’s no timeline yet but recommended third-party apps like Tokimeki and Skeets for users who need the feature now. Bookmarks are also on the wishlist, with Paul teasing that they’re a high priority: “They’re not ‘hard’ due to the protocol, so we just have to find the time.”

A mea culpa from Bluesky’s Paul for the lack of a dedicated iPad app. Initially designed for phone screens, the web version does work on tablets, but it’s not ideal. The team acknowledges the need for an optimized iPad experience, but prioritizing other features might cause a slight delay.

Bluesky’s approach to moderation isn’t just reactive; it’s collaborative. Paul explained their philosophy of “stackable moderation,” where users can subscribe to community-operated moderation services referred to as “labelers.” These labelers can accept reports, assign labels to users or posts, and provide a layer of tailored moderation that aligns with a user’s preferences. “It’s a powerful tool that hands control to the community,” Paul said. Contrary to recent changes on X, blocks on Bluesky are serious business, wiping previous interactions between the blocker and blockee from public view. “You can also detach quote posts, which is a major defense against the most common form of harassment: quote dunking,” he added.

Thread authors also enjoy significant control over their posts. “You can set who is allowed to reply, even after posting,” Emily explained. “If you set ‘Who can reply’ to nobody, you effectively lock the thread.” This ensures users have a say in how their discussions unfold, minimizing the potential for harassment or trolling.

When it comes to bots, Emily shared that combating them feels like a “continuous game of cat-and-mouse.” But Bluesky’s decentralized model allows researchers and developers to investigate public data and flag bot networks. “One example is Conspirador Norteno,” she said, referencing a user who proactively identifies spam and bot accounts. “It makes fighting bots feel much more collaborative.”

Emily shared that Bluesky has considered integrating X-like Community Notes to tackle disinformation but has held off for a practical reason. They felt that, with the current user base, the feature wouldn’t be effective enough. Community Notes relies on an algorithm that requires disagreements among people to reach consensus, and Bluesky needed a larger user base for that mechanism to work. However, with the platform now at 22 million users, Bluesky plans to revisit this feature soon — so expect it to come back into focus as the platform scales.

Bluesky is doing verification differently. Users can set their website as their username, tying their identity to their domain. Emily pointed to examples like @npr.org and @washingtonpost.com, U.S. Senators like @/wyden.senate.gov, and President Lula of Brazil with @/lula.com.br as proof of how effective this can be. For those less tech-savvy, Bluesky is working on ways to simplify the process, such as purchasing and managing domains directly through the platform.

“We’re also thinking about badges for easier visual representation, but we don’t have anything concrete to share yet,” Emily noted, leaving the door open for further updates.

Private accounts remain a significant technical hurdle, and Paul didn’t shy away from the details. “Bluesky is not just an app. It’s also a new Internet technology,” he explained. Because the AT Protocol is designed for public broadcasting of data, creating private accounts requires fundamental changes to the system. “It’s likely going to involve new off-data-repo flows,” he added, balancing the tech talk with a promise to prioritize the feature in the future.

Paul revealed that Bluesky chose on-premise servers over cloud providers like AWS to save on bandwidth costs. “Cloud providers are great, but they charge a very high markup on bandwidth,” he said. For a high-speed messaging network like Bluesky, cutting these costs was a no-brainer.

As for subscriptions, Paul was clear about what Bluesky won’t do: “We won’t promote the posts of paying users, and we won’t give bluechecks to paying users. Verification should mean something!” Instead, the team is focusing on user-centric features to ensure subscriptions align with Bluesky’s mission.

When asked about user safety beyond moderation, Paul acknowledged the flaws of platforms like Twitter, calling them “PVP” spaces where combative behavior is baked into the design. Bluesky aims to flip the script with tools that encourage positive interactions and empower users to control their experience.

Features like aggressive blocks, mutelists, locked threads, and user-controlled reply settings are just the beginning. “Social media should be fun, actually,” Paul quipped, highlighting the team’s commitment to making Bluesky a place where users can engage without the constant stress of negativity.

The AMA wasn’t just about solving immediate problems — it was about dreaming big. Emily and Paul painted a picture of Bluesky as a platform that:

• Empowers communities through custom moderation and feeds.
• Supports real-time discussion with trending topics and better discovery tools.
• Stays transparent and ethical with its subscription model.

As Paul put it, “Bluesky is not just an app. It’s also a new Internet technology” that needs careful building so that we don’t end up with “Twitter 2.0.”

With features like trending topics, bookmarks, and stackable moderation in the works, Bluesky is shaping up to be a platform that listens, evolves, and puts its community first. If this AMA is anything to go by, the future of decentralized social media looks bright — and maybe even a little fun.