Social network Bluesky is teasing its roadmap for the coming year, focusing on things like improving the app’s Discover algorithmic feed, giving users better suggestions for who to follow, giving the app a more real-time feel, and more.
At the same time, the company admitted it has work to do to get the “basics” right.
Launched to the public in early 2024 after an invite-only period, the decentralized X and Threads alternative has since scaled to over 42 million usersaccording to data sourced directly from the Bluesky API for developers.
Although it differentiates itself from mainstream social media with its custom feeds and configurable algorithms, Bluesky hasn’t caught up with its rivals in terms of basic features like private accounts, clipboards, support for longer videos, and more.
Bluesky’s chief product officer, Alex Benzer, acknowledged some of these concerns new post on the company websitewhere he said “the fundamentals have to be solid” before Bluesky can expect users to stick around.
These observations come after use deceleration at Bluesky, which has seen a 40% year-on-year decline in daily active users since October 2025, according to data from market intelligence provider Similarweb; as reported by Forbes.
In addition to clipboard support, Benzer said the app’s composer should handle multimedia better, noting that three-minute videos aren’t enough and that videos should upload faster. Additionally, he wants Bluesky to support posting more than four photos at once, and thinks threads should also be easier to create.
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The need for private accounts has not been addressed, but will take more time to catch on, Bluesky previously explained. THE plan is for the underlying protocol, the AT Protocol (or AT Proto for short), to finally private account support. But that won’t come soon.
Benzer also pointed to improvements to the app’s Discover feed, which could add topic tags as a way to guide users to posts related to their interests. “Who to follow” recommendations will also be improved, as finding high-quality links can improve the overall user experience.
Benzer believes Bluesky needs to have more of a “real-time” feel, whether it’s events like sports or political moments of interest like elections. The company is building curation tools for its team to make high-quality and timely custom streams available during live events, he said. The team is exploring other new features within the streams that would make those streams feel “less like just scrolling through posts and more like hanging out,” Benzer said. (What that means, we’re not exactly sure!)
In terms of developing the overall ecosystem, which the community has named “Atmosphere,” the company will look to improve interoperability with other applications that are also built on the underlying AT Protocol.
For example, if you go live on Twitch or Currentanother application supported by the AT Protocol, you will see a LIVE badge appear on your Bluesky profile picture.
Benzer said another integration like this is coming “soon.”
While Bluesky has been successful in adding users, actual Bluesky usage ebbs and flows, with increases often timed to changes in X or moments of political tension. Meanwhile, Meta’s Threads became X’s closest competitor. New third-party data indicates that Threads is now outpacing X in everyday mobile users, although X was still ahead on the desktop web.
The main advantage of Threads is that it is backed by the resources of a tech giant, allowing for heavy cross-promotion, easier integration, and lots of resources. As a result, Threads has been rapidly shipping new features over the past year or so, including things like interest-based communities, better filters, DMs, long-form text, and disappearing posts. That’s helped differentiate it from X and gain traction among users, including those who want a network that favors creator content over politics, which Threads de-prioritized until a year ago.
