Bluesky Is Getting Its Own Photo-Sharing App, Flashes (techcrunch.com) 27
Independent developer Sebastian Vogelsang is building a photo-sharing app for the decentralized social network Bluesky, leveraging its AT Protocol and his earlier app, Skeets. The app, called Flashes, will offer features like photo and short video posts while integrating seamlessly with Bluesky. TechCrunch reports: When launched, Flashes could tap into growing consumer demand for alternatives to Big Tech's social media monopoly. [...] To make this work, Flashes simply filters Bluesky's existing timeline for posts with photos and video posts. (In the future, Vogelsang also plans to add metadata to Flashes' posts so Bluesky users would have a way to keep their feeds on Bluesky's main app from being flooded with photo posts if that became a problem.) Flashes didn't take too long to build because it was able to reuse Skeets' existing code. The app will also be able to market to Skeets' existing user base, who have now downloaded the app some 30,500 times to date.
Vogelsang says he's now working to integrate subscription-based features from both his apps so users don't have to pay twice for the premium features, like Skeets' bookmarks, drafts, muting, rich push notifications, and others specific to Flashes. (Both apps are free to use without a subscription, we should note.) Later, Vogelsang says he wants to launch a video-only app, too, called Blue Screen.
At launch, Flashes will support photo posts of up to four images and videos of up to 1 minute in length, just like Bluesky. Users who post to Flashes will also have their posts appear on Bluesky and comments on those posts will also feed back into the app as if it were just another Bluesky client. It will also support Bluesky's direct messages. The developer expects to be able to launch Flashes to the public in a matter of weeks with a TestFlight beta arriving ahead of that. Interested users can follow Flashes' account on Bluesky for further updates. Flashes could satiate the growing demand for alternatives to Big Tech's social media monopoly, especially after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that he will end fact-checking on its platforms.
Vogelsang says he's now working to integrate subscription-based features from both his apps so users don't have to pay twice for the premium features, like Skeets' bookmarks, drafts, muting, rich push notifications, and others specific to Flashes. (Both apps are free to use without a subscription, we should note.) Later, Vogelsang says he wants to launch a video-only app, too, called Blue Screen.
At launch, Flashes will support photo posts of up to four images and videos of up to 1 minute in length, just like Bluesky. Users who post to Flashes will also have their posts appear on Bluesky and comments on those posts will also feed back into the app as if it were just another Bluesky client. It will also support Bluesky's direct messages. The developer expects to be able to launch Flashes to the public in a matter of weeks with a TestFlight beta arriving ahead of that. Interested users can follow Flashes' account on Bluesky for further updates. Flashes could satiate the growing demand for alternatives to Big Tech's social media monopoly, especially after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that he will end fact-checking on its platforms.
Are they set on that name? (Score:4, Funny)
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Good idea. Maybe keep with the sky theme - moon? I can't wait to start mooning everyone!
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I mean, it's what these services are basically about.
It got my attention!!! (Score:2)
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We have Youtubers, Redditors, and TikTokers so it's gotta be clear that these will be called Flashers.
Which isn't helping Blusky's reputation for being a safe haven for marxist deviants.
I sure hope the At protocol moves beyond this current management nightmare. So disappointing.
And apparently they're all leaving for Little Red Book, so maybe it'll swing back.
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Which isn't helping Blusky's reputation for being a safe haven for marxist deviants.
Wait... that's what you right-wing crackpots think? LOL!
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It has to be deliberate. Their name for tweets - skeets - is a slang term for ejaculate, or so I'm told.
Everyone should ban more apps- (Score:2)
Re:Everyone should ban more apps- (Score:4, Insightful)
It looks like they moved to threads (Score:2)
I'm assuming threads is incentivizing or paying content creators because they don't make it easy to self-promote. I'm guessing some sort of a cross d
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Never used twitter actually, though I see embedded tweets in new and such. I DID use bluesky though :-) But then, I was a google+ user so I'm in the weirdo category.
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It's German! It means "The Bart, the!"
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-to create more goldrushes to replace them. "X" gets banned in Brazil? Everyone to Bluesky! Tiktok gets banned in the US? Everyone to... well let's see. Maybe if we do it enough people will stop using social media altogether.
Would you have anything against social media if it wasn't driven by algorithms, didn't try to addict users, and and didn't push advertising?
I'm asking because I like the idea of social media, and I think it could truly help people and society if it wasn't in the hands of Pooh's minions and assholes like Zuck and Ketamine Karen.
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Usenet has what you need, though "driven by algorithms" is pretty vague. But I assume that when people talk about algorithms in social media, they're really talking about differences of opinion on how to "best" select/sort posts. The beauty of Usenet is that selection and sorting is handled by the client, so every user can have it their own way, if they want to.
It does occur to me, social media in the 1980s/1990s really was nicer. But it was smaller, too, so you usually couldn't stalk celebrities, ex-girlfr
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Mastodon is exactly that. Not owned by anyone. Minimal efforts to promote engagement (in fact, some intentional decisions to avoid pushing content lest it attract the wrong type of engagement), the only "algorithm" is "chronological by time delivered to the serve".
I like it but for whatever reason most people want something corporate and exploitative and get scared the moment they hear about it being "not owned by anyone", and find the first excuse (usually absurd) to avoid it or claim it's "too hard".
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Naw, then people would have to remember how to talk to other people directly.
Hard pass on other app (Score:2)
just implement an image only grid view tab or make it an optional thing, no need for anymore fucking apps.
BlueSky (Score:2)
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