Social networking startup and X competitor Bluesky officially launches DMs (direct messages), the company was announced on Wednesday. Later, Bluesky plans to “fully support end-to-end encrypted messaging,” it also said.
The launch comes two weeks after the social network said it would soon introduce direct messaging features. Until now, all conversations on the platform were public, so the launch of DMs allows users to chat privately while staying on the social network.
To access the new feature, users can start a private chat with someone on Bluesky’s Chat tab. DMs are available on Bluesky’s mobile and desktop apps. Currently, the feature only supports one-to-one messaging and not group messaging.
The new feature brings Bluesky’s user experience more in line with X (formerly Twitter). The launch also gives Bluesky a competitive advantage over Meta’s Threads, which currently doesn’t offer native DMs (you can, however, share a Threads post to your Instagram DMs).
By default, only people you follow can DM you. You can change your settings to allow DMs from anyone, only people you follow, or all Bluesky users.
Bluesky has seen remarkable success despite launching without some of the core features available on X. The company has been building its service over the past year and has the potential to expand its user base as it brings more features to its platform.
For example, the social network recently began allowing users to personalize their main Discover feeds. Users can now click the “Show more like this” and “Show less like this” buttons to personalize the content the platform shows them. The feature is somewhat similar to X’s “I’m not interested in this post” option.
Bluesky, which has grown to around 5.6 million users, has some more notable features in the works, including video support and anti-harassment tools.
