Elon Musk’s IX allows you to write long content on the platform through its Article feature, but only if you have a paid or business subscription. Shared social network startup Bluesky has a different idea.
On Thursday, Bluesky launched a new version of its app that includes Standard.site, a community project to build long-form content on the same basic protocol that powers Bluesky.
This means that Bluesky users can now explore content beyond the microblogs, or short posts that Bluesky is known for. Instead, they can read articles, blog posts, and newsletters published in a wide network of applications enabled by the AT Protocol, known as the “Atmosphere.” That includes sites like Leaflet, pckt, and Offprint, which cater to freelance writers and publishers who want to own their content and expand its distribution across the open web.
These articles will initially appear as dynamic link cards – essentially, advanced previews. Bluesky says this is just the first step, and the functionality will be improved over time.
This marks the second expansion of Bluesky’s capabilities based on other projects created by community members. In February, a startup called Germ became the first private messaging service to run directly on the Bluesky operating system, thanks to the same integration.
By building a technical infrastructure alongside its social client application, Bluesky is able to use other applications and services that run on the AT Protocol. That’s not a bad thing for third parties, either, since they can tap into the coverage provided by Bluesky’s network of roughly 44.5 million registered users.
The expansion of long-form content follows on the heels of WordPress’ announcement earlier this month of its plugin that allows any WordPress site to publish to Atmosphere. (The plugin joins other WordPress already offered to publish to open public services powered by a different protocol, ActivityPub, like Mastodon.)
Like Bluesky, the WordPress integration relies on Standard.site lexion records, which basically means that your blog becomes data on the AT Protocol itself, instead of just being a link you share in an app like Bluesky. Because of this, any application that is compatible with the AT Protocol can allow its users to read WordPress blog posts.
With this integration coming to Bluesky now, you can see a further vision of the implementation of the open communication web – where the data itself is open and freely distributed, accessible to any client, and where users can move between personal data servers (PDS) at will. (Although Bluesky was the first PDS, there are now others to choose from, including those offered by Eurosky, Blacksky, Northsky, and others.)
That’s really different from X’s approach to content, long form or otherwise, which is always embedded in the app and can be embedded elsewhere on the web.
However, the advantage that X offers in terms of distribution is its 550 million active users per month – something that rival Bluesky’s open public service may not be able to beat.
The updated version of Bluesky (v1.122) also includes a number of other features, the company noted, including an updated GIF picker and image viewer, and expanded limited labeling at the account level, and fixes for a bug that was silently releasing iOS video uploads.
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