Bluesky announced that it is working on a new “communities” feature that will allow users to come together around certain interests. According to information shared by the company’s product manager Alex Zirve, communities will offer smaller digital spaces where users can interact more focused with people interested in the same topics. While the feature is planned to be available within the year, its infrastructure will include AT Protocol, which forms the decentralized structure of Bluesky. Similar states that this structure creates a new model not only for Bluesky but for all applications in the AT Protocol ecosystem.
According to the details shared by Zirve, users will be able to create communities on Bluesky, join existing communities, share in these areas and follow updates. Despite this, the company emphasizes that the main Bluesky experience will remain simple. Much of the flexibility offered by communities will come from integration with the open web. Thus, developers and different applications will be able to extend these communities with their own tools and provide additional functionality.
Each community will have its own username. This username will also serve as an internet address. When users go to the relevant address, they will encounter a home page specially prepared for the community. However, developers will be able to offer completely customized experiences in these areas if they wish. This approach reflects Bluesky’s effort to move away from centralized platform logic and towards a more open and extensible structure.
Bluesky communities will offer different privacy options
In the new system, there will be three different privacy levels for communities. These are open to everyone, by invitation and completely private communities. Thus, users will be able to determine the access level of the areas they create according to their needs. In addition, each community will have its own flow. In this way, posts will be able to focus on specific areas of interest without getting lost in the general timeline.
Bluesky’s approach to communities also coincides with the recent statements made by company executives. Last week, Bluesky COO Rose Wang said that the platform does not want to remain just a “public square.” Wang stated that they were especially inspired by interest-based community structures such as Reddit. The new communities feature stands out as one of the concrete examples of this approach.
On the other hand, there are other companies taking similar steps in the social media industry. Meta’s Threads platform is currently testing its communities feature. In response, X announced in April that it would end the communities system. This shows that social networks follow different strategies in directing users to smaller and interest-oriented groups instead of gathering them in a large and single stream.
Bluesky’s planned community structure could make the platform’s decentralized architecture more visible. While it is possible for users to produce content and interact in areas that suit their interests, it is noteworthy that developers can also create new experiences in these areas. A clear date has not been shared regarding when the feature will be available. Despite this, the announced details show that Bluesky is preparing to move the social networking experience to a more customizable and community-oriented structure.