Bluesky gets moderation and other new features, but you still need an invitation

Bluesky is the new social network that came as another alternative to Twitter. Supported by Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, it was launched as a “private beta” earlier this year. More recently, Bluesky has been updated with multiple new features, including content moderation. But you still need an invitation to join it.

Right after Bluesky was released on the App Store, I was invited to test it and wrote my first impressions here on 9to5Mac. Since then, the project has evolved considerably, although it doesn’t seem to be ready for the public yet.

Bluesky adds new features, but remains invitation-only

In its latest update, Bluesky has added Thread Muting, so that you can mute notifications of conversations in which you have been mentioned. A few days ago, Bluesky was updated with content moderation for the first time. Users can now report a post as spam, hate content, copyright infringement, or illegal.

Dorsey once said that platforms like Twitter shouldn’t have so much power “in terms of deciding which users and communities could engage in speech and who would be responsible for moderating that content.” It remains unclear, however, how Bluesky handles these reports.

Since I wrote my last article, some of my complaints about Bluesky have been addressed. The interface has been tweaked, onboarding for new users has been made even easier, and there’s now a beta web version and an Android app. On the other hand, notifications still seem broken.

But perhaps the biggest news for Bluesky is the fact that users can now invite others to join the social network. Although it remains invitation-only, now any user who has an account on the platform can invite more people. Previously, you had to get a code from one of the developers working on Bluesky.

It wants to become a Twitter replacement

The Bluesky team is still engaged in trying to replace Twitter with a very similar idea. The platform has been causing some buzz on the web since it was launched, but it’s hard to say whether users will remain interested in it after a while.

Bluesky is available for free on the App Store. It requires an iPhone running iOS 13 or later. The app has no iPad or Mac versions.

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