One of the top downloads in the iOS App Store is not like the others. Bluesky, the decentralized alternative to X, now ranks fourth among free iOS apps in the U.S. as of Oct. 18–-behind Meta’s Threads, ChatGPT, and Google, but ahead of TikTok and Temu.
In comparison, X’s app ranks 29th on that leaderboard. In the iOS social-networking category, Bluesky ranks second—behind Threads and ahead of WhatsApp, Facebook, and Telegram. X doesn’t show up in that category but does rank as the top free news app. That may seem like an odd classification, but Pew Research Center data shows a majority of its users go to the app for news—and remain wary of the misinformation sloshing around it.
As for Android, Bluesky currently ranks 39th among free apps in the U.S. Play Store, while X is 43rd. Bluesky also ranks fifth among social apps after Threads, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, followed by X.
A surge of signups seems to be propelling all of these app installs, with Bluesky’s official account reporting more than half a million new users in the last day. A third-party count suggests the total user count is now nearing 12 million.
Those would be strong growth numbers for any social platform, but Bluesky seems one of the least likely candidates for a boom like this. Not only is it competing with a platform owned by the richest man in the world, it started life in 2019 as a Twitter research project aimed at building a decentralized social network on open protocols. Until February, Bluesky required an invite code just to sign up, and it’s been playing catchup in adding popular Twitter features like hashtags, direct messaging and video sharing.
Bluesky does, however, offer certain features that are notably absent from competing platforms, such as user-defined programmable feeds instead of feeds dictated by a centralized and force-fed algorithm (Threads, we’re talking about you), independent verification by using your domain name as a handle, and the ability to move your entire account and identity to the server of your choice.
Bluesky also has one feature that X can’t add: It’s not subject to Elon Musk’s chaotic rule, which in recent weeks has seen him turn part of the platform into a Donald Trump infomercial, hide people’s likes, and declare that the block function “makes no sense”and will no longer hide your posts from people you block.
A recent post by the X Engineering account warning that this block downgrade will happen “soon” looks like the most obvious spur for this burst of Bluesky signups. That, in turn, seems the biggest boost to Bluesky since Brazil’s Supreme Court banned X from that country in August after an escalating standoff between Musk and investigators of the January 2023 coup attempt launched by supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Bluesky’s user numbers remain a small fraction of those of X and Threads. In July, third-party data suggested X’s daily active user total had stalled at about 250 million, while Threads head Adam Mosseri posted in September that the platform had reached 200 million users.
The federated alternative Mastodon, meanwhile, counts almost 15.5 million users across its archipelago of “instances” but now appears to be growing much more slowly than Bluesky.
All of these short-form social outlets, meanwhile, draw far fewer people than such mainstays as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. In January, the Pew Research Center reported that only 22% of U.S. adults used X, with none of its alternatives even showing up in Pew’s published stats. In comparison, 83% of U.S. adults were on YouTube, 68% on Facebook, and 47% were on Instagram.
