Social networking startup and X competitor Bluesky is formally launching DMs (direct messages), the corporate introduced on Wednesday. Later, Bluesky plans to “absolutely help end-to-end encrypted messaging,” the corporate mentioned.
The launch comes two weeks after the social community teased that it could quickly introduce direct messaging capabilities. Till now, all conversations on the platform have been public, so the launch of DMs will permit customers to talk privately whereas nonetheless staying on the social community.
To entry the brand new characteristic, customers can begin a personal dialog with somebody in Bluesky’s ‘Chat’ tab. DMs can be found on Bluesky’s cellular and desktop purposes. For now, nonetheless, the characteristic solely helps one-on-one messaging, not group messaging.
The brand new characteristic brings Bluesky’s person expertise extra in keeping with X (previously Twitter). The launch additionally offers Bluesky a aggressive benefit over Meta’s Threads, which does not presently supply native DMs (though you possibly can share a Threads submit to your Instagram DMs).
By default, solely individuals you observe can ship you DMs. You possibly can change your settings to not permit DMs from anybody, solely individuals you observe, or from all Bluesky customers.
Bluesky has seen notable success regardless of launching with out among the core options accessible on X. The corporate has been constructing out its service over the previous 12 months and has the potential to increase its person base because it provides extra capabilities to its platform.
For instance, the social community lately began permitting customers to personalize their foremost Uncover feeds. Customers can now click on the ‘Present extra like this’ and ‘Present much less like this’ buttons to personalize the content material the platform reveals them. The characteristic is considerably just like X’s “Not on this message” choice.
Bluesky, which has grown to about 5.6 million customers, has some extra notable options within the pipeline, like video help and anti-harassment instruments.
