Bluesky adds group chats to boost user engagement
What's the story
Bluesky, the social network, has launched a new feature: group chats. The update comes with the latest version of the app (v1.124) and is part of a larger shift in Bluesky's strategy to focus more on communities than just individual posts for public consumption. The move comes as Bluesky's growth has slowed down, with 44.8 million registered users compared to 600 million monthly active users on X.
Feature details
Group chats can have up to 50 members
The group chat feature on Bluesky supports up to 50 members, smaller than X's limit of 1,000. However, the company has said it may increase this limit in the future. Group chat creators can manage their chats as they wish and decide who can join them. They can also create an invite link that can be shared across the web, including in Bluesky posts, where it's displayed as an embedded card.
User autonomy
Who can invite you to a chat?
Bluesky gives its users control over who can invite them to chats. The default setting is "only people you follow," unless they choose a different option for direct messages (DMs). However, it's worth noting that sharing media in group chats isn't supported yet as it would need additional safety and moderation systems.
Strategic shift
Bluesky is working on community features
Alex Benzer, Bluesky's head of product, recently revealed the company's plan to make its app more community-focused. He said, "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 also hinted at building additional community features on the underlying protocol (AT Proto), with support from a broader developer ecosystem.
Competitive edge
X shut down Communities feature in April
The planned communities on Bluesky comes after X announced in April that it was shutting down its Communities feature due to low usage and too much spam. Benzer said communities on Bluesky will have their own handle that doubles as a URL, like community-name.bsky.social or community-name.bsky.space. They can also be set as public, invite-only, or private, similar to options available on Facebook Groups or Reddit.