(KRON) — Bluesky, a decentralized social platform, has experienced a surge in users following the U.S. election and now boasts upwards of 15 million users. The app, which is a short-form blogging platform similar to X, has seemingly emerged as the frontrunner for users seeking an alternative to the Elon Musk-helmed social network.
According to a report in The Verge, the majority of the new users flocking to the app are coming from the United States. As of Wednesday, the Bluesky app was No. 1 in the iOS app store, above Threads, Meta’s X alternative, and ChatGPT.
Despite its apparent post-election surge, Bluesky still ranks behind Threads, which recently hit 275 million users. Like Threads, Bluesky is currently ad-free.
Bluesky, championed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, describes itself as “an open social network that gives creators independence from platforms, developers the freedom to build, and users a choice in their experience.”
Bluesky offers users a number of different feeds and boasts a “discover new feeds” option. The platform also offers feeds with custom algorithms, similar to X’s lists, that allow users to subscribe to feeds with algorithms that showcase different kinds of posts.
In August, Bluesky rolled out video posting, in addition to its pinned posts and custom fonts. Bluesky also offers “Anti-toxicity” features like allowing you to detach your original post from someone else’s quote post.
Bluesky has referenced its competitive relationship to X through tongue-in-cheek comments, including an Election Day post on X referencing Musk watching voting results come in with President-elect Donald Trump.
“I can guarantee that no Bluesky team members will be sitting with a presidential candidate tonight and giving them direct access to control what you see online,” Bluesky said.
Across the platform, new users — among them journalists, left-leaning politicians and celebrities — have posted memes and shared that they were looking forward to using a space free from advertisements and hate speech. Some said it reminded them of the early days of X when it was still Twitter.
On Wednesday, The Guardian said it would no longer post on X, citing “far right conspiracy theories and racism” on the site as a reason.
Last year, advertisers such as IBM, NBCUniversal and its parent company Comcast fled X over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content and hate speech on the site in general, with Musk inflaming tensions with his own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.