Latest news with #ATProtocol
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Yahoo
Everything you need to know about Flashes, the Bluesky-based Instagram alternative
Flashes this year launched an Instagram alternative built on top of the Bluesky social network. Now available on the App Store, the app offers a different way to browse the visual posts on Bluesky. Instead of viewing them in a timeline-like feed, similar to X, the app draws inspiration from photo-based social networks, like Instagram. The app, built by Berlin-based developer Sebastian Vogelsang, runs on the same underlying protocol that powers Bluesky, the AT Protocol (or atproto for short). That means it will have the same requirements around posting images and videos as you'd find on Bluesky directly. Originally, that meant support for posting up to four images and videos of one minute in length, but as of the Bluesky version 1.99 update released on March 10, users have been able to upload videos up to 3 minutes in length. Flashes is somewhat similar to Instagram, as it offers a scrollable feed of photos and videos, user profiles, and even photo filters to enhance your images when posting. Instead of having to start your network from scratch, Flashes' users are immediately tapped into the wider Bluesky community, which now has over 37 million users. Even if not all of Bluesky's users are on Flashes, their images and videos will be displayed in the app, as it essentially filters the Bluesky feed for visual content. When you post on Flashes, it creates a post that appears on Bluesky as well. (For that reason, you may want to make a secondary Bluesky account if you want to keep the two networks separate.) In addition, the app lets you browse your own Bluesky feeds and choose from Bluesky's over 50,000 custom feeds, including those that focus on particular topics — like art, birds, gardening, or cat pics, for example — or those dedicated to specific formats, like Bluesky's video feed. As you browse through the posts in Flashes, you can like, repost, and reply to them, just as you could on Bluesky itself. Those interactions will also appear in Bluesky's app, while Bluesky users' interactions will show up in Flashes. Photographers looking for a place to showcase their work will appreciate Flashes' 'Portfolio' feature. To toggle this setting on, you'll head to the 'Advanced' tab on your user profile, then tap on 'Flashes profile.' Here, there will be an option to enable Portfolio, which lets you curate which images should appear on your Flashes user profile. You can also customize your user profile further by opting to show or hide likes, lists, and feeds, or using other media filtering options. To use Flashes, you'll first need a Bluesky account. If you already have one, you can sign in with those credentials. If not, you can choose to sign up for a Bluesky account from within the Flashes app. The app defaults to setting up your account on the main Bluesky server, but more technical users can opt to set up a custom hosting provider instead. To create your account, you'll need to provide an email address, password, and date of birth, then accept the terms of use, which means you agree to Bluesky's Community Guidelines and Terms. Once signed in, you can immediately start browsing the images and videos shared on your Bluesky timeline or any other Bluesky feed, or post your own media. Vogelsang hopes that Flashes will help pull in more users to the Bluesky community, including those who aren't as interested in a Twitter/X-like experience. Instead, the app appeals more to people looking for open alternatives to Meta's Instagram. It's not the only app building in this space, however. Another app working on similar experiences is Pinksky. Meanwhile, users of Mastodon's social network may prefer Pixelfed, which uses the fediverse's ActivityPub protocol under the hood instead of Bluesky's atproto. Over time, Vogelsang wants to add more features to Flashes, like push notifications, support for multiple accounts, bookmarks, and more editing options. Plans to add subscriptions with premium features are in the works, which would help fund Android and web development. These paid tiers could also provide premium access to Vogelsang's third-party Bluesky app, Skeets, and his video-focused app, Bluescreen. Other planned features include iPad layout improvements, support for longer videos, posts that are only visible for a limited time (like Stories), albums, and batched image transfer from other platforms. Eventually, the developer would like to evolve Flashes to be its own AT Protocol-based platform, while still being compatible with Bluesky's network. The app is a free download from the App Store and requires iOS 17 or higher to run. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
India Today
19-06-2025
- Politics
- India Today
JD Vance's Bluesky account suspended minutes after first post on trans youth care
US Vice President JD Vance's foray into Bluesky was remarkably brief, with his account suspended just minutes after his inaugural announced his arrival on Wednesday evening at 4:50 p.m. ET, stating, "Hello Bluesky, I have been told this app has become the place to go for common sense political discussion and analysis. So I am thrilled to be here to engage with all of you."advertisementYet, by 6:30 p.m., attempts to access his page were met with a message: "Account has been suspended." The Vice President's posts had reportedly included criticisms of medical treatments for transgender youths and claims regarding pharmaceutical influence on healthcare decisions. Vance's first post, which he screenshot and shared on X, discussed the most recent Supreme Court decision, which addressed a challenge to Tennessee's ban on providing puberty blockers and hormone treatments to minors."To that end, I found Justice Thomas's concurrence on medical care for transgender youth quite illuminating. He argues that many of our so called "experts" have used bad arguments and substandard science to push experimental therapies on our youth."advertisement" I might add that many of those scientists are receiving substantial resources from Big Pharma to push these medicines on kids," Vance added. "What do you think?"Bluesky has not yet commented on speculation surrounding the disappearance of Vance's account. Bluesky is a decentralized social media platform designed to give users more control over their data and online identity. Built on the AT Protocol, it allows for greater transparency, portability, and customization compared to traditional Watch
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Introducing Bounce, a tool to move your following between Bluesky and Mastodon
A major development showcasing the potential for the open social web was unveiled Thursday at the online conference known as FediForum. The makers of Bridgy Fed, the tool that connects decentralized open social networks, like Mastodon and Bluesky, developed a new project called Bounce that will allow users to migrate their social network followers across networks powered by different protocols. This is a significant step toward making the open social web a more viable alternative to the locked-in ecosystems provided by tech giants like Meta, Snap, Google, TikTok, and X — and where you may be able to delete your account and export your data when you leave, but not actually migrate your account to a new app. Today, Mastodon, Bluesky, and other social services that run on their protocols (ActivityPub and the AT Protocol, respectively) allow users to move their accounts within their protocol network. That means a Mastodon user can migrate their account to another Mastodon server, while Bluesky allows users to move their accounts and data from one Personal Data Server (PDS) to another. (The latter is still a work in progress because you can move off of Bluesky's PDS but not back to it!) However, it hasn't been possible for users to move their accounts or retain their followings by moving from one network to another. Now led by a nonprofit called A New Social, the makers of Bridgy Fed have developed technology that will make this type of migration possible. The tech builds on Bridgy Fed to allow users to "move" their Bluesky account to their Mastodon profile's bridged account (an account that listens for your Mastodon posts and then replicates them on Bluesky so your Bluesky followers can see them), then take the bridged account and "move" it to the user's Mastodon profile. How all this works under the hood is technically complicated because both platforms have different ways of handling migrations. That's why Bridgy Fed has to function as something of a middleman, enabling the transition with servers of its own, custom-built for the purpose of bridging and moves. Currently a proof-of-concept, the technology will launch into beta in a few weeks -- but not for the casual user. "I don't want to go as far as saying it's a tech demo, but it was really important to prove that this is possible," says New Social's CEO and executive director, Anuj Ahooja. There are some complications at present, too. You can't move back to Bluesky's PDS because the social network hasn't built out that technology yet, for starters. Also, if someone on Bluesky who isn't bridged interacts with your "moved" account, you won't see that once you're on the Mastodon side. But the team is working on developing a feature that will notify you of off-bridge interactions, Ahooja says. In addition, Bounce alerts you to how many of the people you follow aren't bridged, so if they ever do bridge, you can re-follow them. Ultimately, the team hopes the technology in Bounce would be obscured from the everyday open social user, who could instead decide simply what app they want to use and then go through a few short steps to move their following. And while today, Bounce supports Bluesky, Mastodon, and Pixelfed (an ActivityPub-based photo-sharing app), the longer-term goal would be to support any open social platform and protocol, whether that's a long-form blogging platform like Ghost, or even other networks like those running on Nostr or Farcaster. "We're trying to create an interface for the open social web to handle some of these tougher movements that you have to make," explained Ahooja. "So, if you're unhappy with something Bluesky is doing -- or even if you're not unhappy, but you feel like a platform on the ActivityPub side is doing something that you really needed to do...[you could] do these couple of clicks on Bounce," he added. Bounce is the third project from A New Social. In addition to Bridgy Fed, the organization also launched a settings page a few weeks ago that makes the process of preparing to bridge easier and allows you to set a custom domain for your account. The overall goal at A New Social is to shift the power of social networks back to the people, not the platform makers, by giving them tools that let them move their account and their followings, and leave if a platform ever fails them in some way. This motto of 'People not Platforms' is now emblazoned on merch A New Social sells, like tees, hoodies, hats, cups, and stickers that help monetize its efforts, alongside its Patreon.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Introducing Bounce, a tool to move your following between Bluesky and Mastodon
A major development showcasing the potential for the open social web was unveiled Thursday at the online conference known as FediForum. The makers of Bridgy Fed, the tool that connects decentralized open social networks, like Mastodon and Bluesky, developed a new project called Bounce that will allow users to migrate their social network followers across networks powered by different protocols. This is a significant step towards making the open social web a more viable alternative to the locked-in ecosystems provided by tech giants like Meta, Snap, Google, TikTok, and X — and where you may be able to delete your account and export your data when you leave, but not actually migrate your account to a new app. Today, Mastodon, Bluesky, and other social services that run on their protocols (ActivityPub and the AT Protocol, respectively) allow users to move their accounts within their protocol network. That means a Mastodon user can migrate their account to another Mastodon server, while Bluesky allows users to move their accounts and data from one Personal Data Server (PDS) to another. (The latter is still a work in progress because you can move off of Bluesky's PDS but not back to it!) However, it hasn't been possible for users to move their accounts or retain their followings by moving from one network to another. Now led by a nonprofit called A New Social, the makers of Bridgy Fed have developed technology that will make this type of migration possible. The tech builds on Bridgy Fed to allow users to "move" their Bluesky account to their Mastodon profile's bridged account (an account that listens for your Mastodon posts and then replicates them on Bluesky so your Bluesky followers can see them), then take the bridged account and "move" it to the user's Mastodon profile. How all this works under the hood is technically complicated because both platforms have different ways of handling migrations. That's why Bridgy Fed has to function as something of a middleman, enabling the transition with servers of its own, custom-built for the purpose of bridging and moves. Currently a proof-of-concept, the technology will launch into beta in a few weeks -- but not for the casual user. "I don't want to go as far as saying it's a tech demo, but it was really important to prove that this is possible," says New Social's CEO and executive director, Anuj Ahooja. There are some complications at present, too. You can't move back to Bluesky's PDS because the social network hasn't built out that technology yet, for starters. Also, if someone on Bluesky who isn't bridged interacts with your "moved" account, you won't see that once you're on the Mastodon side. But the team is working on developing a feature that will notify you of off-bridge interactions, Ahooja says. In addition, Bounce alerts you to how many of the people you follow aren't bridged, so if they ever do bridge, you can re-follow them. Ultimately, the team hopes the technology in Bounce would be obscured from the everyday open social user, who could instead decide simply what app they want to use and then go through a few short steps to move their following. And while today, Bounce supports Bluesky, Mastodon, and Pixelfed (an ActivityPub-based photo-sharing app), the longer-term goal would be to support any open social platform and protocol, whether that's a long-form blogging platform like Ghost, or even other networks like those running on Nostr or Farecaster. "We're trying to create an interface for the open social web to handle some of these tougher movements that you have to make," explained Ahooja. "So, if you're unhappy with something Bluesky is doing -- or even if you're not unhappy, but you feel like a platform on the ActivityPub side is doing something that you really needed to do...[you could] do these couple of clicks on Bounce," he added. Bounce is the third project from A New Social. In addition to Bridgy Fed, the organization also launched a settings page a few weeks ago that makes the process of preparing to bridge easier and allows you to set a custom domain for your account. The overall goal at A New Social is to shift the power of social networks back to the people, not the platform makers, by giving them tools that let them move their account, their followings, and leave if a platform ever fails them in some way. This motto of 'People not Platforms' is now emblazoned on merch A New Social sells, like tees, hoodies, hats, cups, and stickers that help monetize its efforts, alongside its Patreon. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at
Time of India
25-04-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Bluesky outage raises questions over decentralisation promise
Bluesky , the decentralised social network that promised a break from traditional centralised platforms, faced a significant outage on Thursday evening, briefly halting access for users on both web and mobile platforms, TechCrunch reported. #Pahalgam Terrorist Attack India pulled the plug on IWT when Pakistanis are fighting over water Pakistan alleges terror charge on India in its statement What makes this India-Pakistan standoff more dangerous than past ones The platform remained inaccessible for nearly an hour. A message on Bluesky's status page acknowledged the disruption, attributing it to what the company described as "Major PDS Networking Problems". PDS stands for personal data servers, which form a core part of Bluesky's infrastructure. The report added that the first update about the issue was posted at 6:55 PM ET, followed by a second message at 7:38 PM ET, indicating that a fix was being implemented. Play Video Pause Skip Backward Skip Forward Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded : 0% 0:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 1x Playback Rate Chapters Chapters Descriptions descriptions off , selected Captions captions settings , opens captions settings dialog captions off , selected Audio Track default , selected Picture-in-Picture Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Text Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Caption Area Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Drop shadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trade Bitcoin & Ethereum – No Wallet Needed! IC Markets Start Now Undo If decentralisation is meant to eliminate single points of failure, why did Bluesky go down? The answer lies in how the platform is currently structured and used. Even though Bluesky is built on the AT Protocol , which allows anyone to run parts of the network such as personal data servers, relays and client apps, most people still depend on Bluesky's official servers and app. So, even though the system is decentralised in theory, most of the activity still runs through infrastructure controlled by Bluesky itself. Live Events Users operating independent infrastructure were unaffected by the outage, reinforcing the potential of the model. Bluesky has said its long-term goal is to encourage the growth of multiple communities, each potentially running their own servers, moderation systems, and apps. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories One example is Blacksky, an initiative building safer and more inclusive online spaces using the AT Protocol. The incident also reignited a familiar rivalry between Bluesky and Mastodon, another decentralised network that operates using the ActivityPub protocol. Also Read: X-rival Bluesky rolls out official verification system
