--- title: "People Are Flocking to Jack Dorsey’s New Twitter Alternative" description: "Twitter users are clamoring to get an invite to former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's decentralized Twitter alternative Bluesky." date: "2023-04-27" modified: "2023-04-27" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/invites-jack-dorsey-twitter-alternative-bluesky" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "bluesky" - "jack dorsey" - "the digest" - "twitter" --- # People Are Flocking to Jack Dorsey’s New Twitter Alternative ![Twitter users are clamoring to get an invite to former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's decentralized Twitter alternative Bluesky.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Blue Skies Twitter users are clamoring to get an invite to former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's decentralized Twitter alternative Bluesky. A [quick search]() reveals countless accounts giving away or begging for invites. The app, now available on both [Android]() and [iOS](), is only accepting new users via either a waitlist or a gifted invite code from a friend who's already on the platform. And the hype surrounding the emerging competitor is growing fast. [*Bloomberg* reported]() earlier this week that the iPhone app alone has been downloaded 245,000 times. [Over a million users]() are now on the service's waitlist. "Feels like Bluesky is hitting an inflection point this week?" [tweeted]() *The Verge* editor Alex Heath. "At least with the Twitter tech crowd." "My expectations for Bluesky were very low, but just in the week since I joined it’s gone from being almost entirely crypto and bad AI art to having a good mix of journalists and tech people I don’t hate," [wrote]() programmer Travis Brown. ## Buggy Mess Meanwhile, Musk's [bizarre and haphazard decisions]() are slowly turning Twitter from a once — at least somewhat — reliable platform into a buggy and increasingly unusable mess. Musk has also paywalled a number of different Twitter features, from [API access]() to being "[verified]()" — thought the paid "verification," laughably, doesn't actually verify users' identities. That new reality is clearly starting to alienate some of the platform's most loyal users. In short, it's not exactly surprising to see folks clamoring to jump ship. ## Back to Basics So what's this new app, then? According to a [March blog post]() by Bluesky project leader Jay Graber, the app is a decentralized microblogging platform with the end goal of providing "choice to users, freedom to developers, and control to creators." As of right now, Bluesky is fairly basic. It allows users to compose 300-character posts and replies, as well as share and repost images. Whether it manages to "usurp" Twitter, as *NBC*'s Ben Collins [argued](), remains to be seen. But Bluesky "works and it looks and feels like this one, which is all we ever asked," he added. **More on Bluesky:** *[Departed Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey Is Launching a New Social Network]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()