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With the future prospects of TikTok now very much in doubt, it’s perhaps no surprise that people are now looking for the next big social media platform to break into the mainstream. One name that consistently turns up again and again is Bluesky, which actually launched back in 2019, but is only now picking up momentum.
The new X?
A big reason for this surge in momentum has to do with Twitter. Now that Elon Musk is at the helm of Twitter (now called X), people are looking for alternatives. They are convinced that X has lost its way and is becoming too much of an ally of the Trump administration. It’s much the same phenomenon as occurred a few years earlier, when pro-Trump social media users were looking for alternatives and started to migrate to platforms such as Gab, Rumble, and Truth Social.
It’s not a stretch to say that Bluesky could become the new Twitter. For one, it shares some of the same DNA as Twitter. Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey helped to launch Bluesky back in 2019, as a more decentralized version of Twitter. So it naturally looks and feels much like Twitter.
Just like Twitter, Bluesky is primarily a text-centric social media platform that encourages people to leave 300-character “skeets” (not “tweets”). And, just like Twitter, Bluesky is available as an app for iOS and Android.
How much momentum is there?
While Bluesky undoubtedly posted a surge in new users after the 2024 presidential election, it is still very much behind the big social media behemoths. For example, it has – at best – 20 million daily active users. That’s approximately 10% of the daily active users of X. And it’s also well behind Threads, the new social media platform from Meta, which has 175 million users.
So it remains to be seen if Bluesky is a long-term trend, or just a passing fad. People threatening to leave Twitter for Bluesky could be the latest iteration of people threatening to leave the USA for Canada if Trump won re-election. How many of your friends have actually packed up and left for the colder climes of our North American neighbor?
The decentralization trend
The big idea behind Bluesky is decentralization. Simply put, that means a social media platform where users have far more power than with today’s social media platforms. While Bluesky still has a CEO and a hierarchical management structure, the goal is to eventually give more and more of the decision-making power to users.
That might include, for example, the ability to change what appears in your social media news feed. Instead of a nameless, faceless algorithm being in charge of what appears on a daily basis, you would be in charge. And it means more power over how your personal data is used.
What will be the top social media platform of 2025?
Is Bluesky viable? Will it take over from X? It remains to be seen. A lot really depends on Elon Musk. The more that he is seen as an influential member of the Trump administration, the more likely that Bluesky is to attract new users. For now, at least, it looks like the big social media giants will continue to play a dominant role, with a few minor upstarts providing them some competition along the way.
