Bluesky is growing at an astonishing rate, and Threads would like some of that action.
Meta's social network has announced multiple new features that resemble Bluesky capabilities.
Bluesky is on a roll right now. The social network that's a direct rival to Threads and X has been growing at an astonishing rate.
In October 2024, it had just over 12 million users, while that figure has nearly doubled since. And, it's clear that the growth has at least got Mark Zuckerberg rattled.
After months of relative inactivity, Meta's Threads has suddenly started getting new features that sound very much like Bluesky's.
The latest is a version of Bluesky's Starter Packs, which are user-created lists of interesting people you might want to follow. They're astonishingly effective: I was added to one on Bluesky last week and the number of people following me has jumped from around 400 to over 2,700 with more arriving daily.
There are over 37,000 such starter packs now, covering every conceivable type of account.
And now, Meta has just announced that it will be bringing suggested following lists "handpicked by people on Threads" to its own social network.
This isn't the only new announcement. Since its rival's growth started to accelerate, Threads has announced Bluesky-style lists, and has said you'll soon be able to set your Following feed as the default.
At the moment, Threads resets to the algorithm-based For You ever time you visit. And it's been against changing that since the Following feed was introduced.
Why Bluesky has Meta rattled
The short version is that Bluesky offers something that Meta's social networks – Facebook, Instagram and Threads – deliberately don't. It shows you all of the posts from the people you choose to follow in the order in which they were posted.
There's no algorithm deciding what it thinks you should look at; no sponsored or suggested posts; no attempt to "surface content" or sell you things; no hiding links to stop you leaving the mothership or hiding stories that it considers "political".
If you're thinking that sounds very like Twitter before it was broken, you're not the only one. There are roughly 23 million others.
Bluesky isn't impressed by Meta's sudden change of heart, though: "If this app is going to keep copying our features," it posted to Threads, "you might as well just join Bluesky."
For now, Threads is much bigger than Bluesky. However, it's clear that Bluesky is the big winner from the ongoing X exodus.
While Threads reports 275 million active monthly users as of November 2024, it isn't growing at the rate Bluesky is, it doesn't feel as "sticky" as Bluesky does, and it doesn't appear to be driving the cultural conversation in the way that Twitter used to and Bluesky is increasingly seeming to.
So, to counter that, Meta is returning to a strategy it's used many times before: if you can't beat 'em, copy 'em. Expect more familiar-sounding Threads feature announcements in the very near future.
