Just over a year after Bluesky opened its doors to the public as a notable competitor to X (formerly Twitter), the landscape is evolving rapidly. Bluesky itself has attracted over 33 million users, but perhaps more significantly, the underlying technology, the AT Protocol (ATProto), is fostering a vibrant ecosystem of dozens of new applications. These apps aim to build an open social web, moving away from the centralized, siloed services characteristic of Web 2.0 giants. Developers recently gathered both in-person at the inaugural ATmosphere conference in Seattle and online to discuss the future of ATProto, its challenges, and the potential for this burgeoning ecosystem, signaling a collective effort to reshape online social interaction. The core idea driving the ATProto community is a fundamental shift from the traditional Web 2.0 model, where user data and control reside with large corporations. Instead, these new applications are built on open technology, designed for interoperability and user empowerment. Bluesky was the pioneering service, but it's increasingly clear that it represents just the first step in a potentially much larger movement. The goal is to return control over social networking experiences and personal data to the users themselves. Many of the applications leveraging ATProto are still in their early stages, yet they collectively showcase the immense potential and diverse possibilities within this expanding decentralized social sphere. One prominent category emerging on ATProto involves photo and video sharing, offering alternatives to established platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Flashes, developed by Sebastian Vogelsang, provides a classic Instagram-like experience, allowing uploads of multiple photos or videos (up to 3 minutes), complete with filters and curated feeds; it saw significant initial uptake with 30,000 downloads in its first day. Another contender, Spark (formerly Reelo), is built directly on ATProto, enabling features beyond Bluesky's limitations, such as longer video support, filters, effects, and planned livestreaming. Skylight Social, currently in testing, offers standard social features like likes and follows, with video support in development. Similarly, Pinksky focuses on a classic photo-sharing experience with a Stories feature, available on both iOS and Android. Vogelsang is also developing Bluescreen, specifically for videos on Bluesky, while Videos for Bluesky by indie developer Hoshida Takiyoshi offers a TikTok-style vertical scrolling interface for browsing Bluesky videos. Livestreaming is also finding its place within the ATProto ecosystem, spearheaded by Streamplace. Founded by Eli Mallon, it stands as the first livestreaming service built on the protocol, recently used to broadcast the ATmosphere conference. It offers high-quality video streaming, uploads, and clips, with content cryptographically signed by creators, leveraging the same public key infrastructure as decentralized social networks. This approach holds potential for creators seeking direct fan engagement without revenue splits demanded by platforms like Twitch. Enhancing user control over content consumption are specialized feed builders. Graze is a startup enabling users to easily build, customize, publish, and manage Bluesky feeds, tapping into the network's public post firehose (Jetstream), with future plans for monetization options. Flipboard's Surf app, currently in private beta, takes a broader approach, allowing custom feed creation from Bluesky, Mastodon, RSS, and more, mixing social posts with news and podcasts. For a more technical approach, SkyFeed offers a web-based, TweetDeck-like client where users can build custom feeds using lists or regular expressions, alongside dashboard features. Communication and social discovery tools are also being developed. Germ aims to be more than just an encrypted messenger like Signal; founded by Tessa Brown and Mark Xue, it envisions a platform for discovering and connecting with others for various purposes (marketplaces, dating) while maintaining user control over shared data. It features multiple identities and uses Apple's App Clips for initial interaction, with Bluesky integration planned for secure chat. Roomy, backed by Skyseed, is a peer-to-peer messaging app similar to Discord but built on open standards like ATProto for discovery and Automerge for P2P aspects, currently in alpha testing for encrypted messaging between Bluesky users. Making sense of the vast amount of information flowing through these networks is the focus of social trend applications. Dazzle.fm, from former Stability AI engineers, organizes the Bluesky firehose into categories and highlights trends, allowing users to tune the experience using natural language instructions via AI to filter content based on topic or sentiment. Sill functions as a link aggregation service, similar to the defunct Nuzzel, tracking the most shared links and conversations across Bluesky and Mastodon, utilizing Bluesky's OAuth for easier login. Frontpage offers a decentralized, federated link aggregator built on ATProto, allowing users to organize, upvote, and comment on interesting posts and links. For users seeking different interfaces or enhanced features for Bluesky itself, several alternative clients have emerged. Skeets, also by Vogelsang, prioritizes accessibility and works well on iPhone and iPad. Deck.blue provides a TweetDeck-style web interface with columns for feeds, notifications, lists, multi-account support, and post scheduling. Dragonfly is a subscription-based client for macOS and iPad, adding sought-after features like Bookmarks and Drafts. Windows users have Beeskie, a free, open-source client designed to match the Windows aesthetic. Android users can try Skywalker, which also adds bookmarks and draft saving capabilities. Organizing real-world interactions is facilitated by event management platforms built on ATProto. Smoke Signal serves as an alternative to Eventbrite or Facebook Events, allowing users to discover communities, create events, and RSVP using their ATProto identity via OAuth, keeping data user-controlled. OpenMeet provides an open-source alternative to Meetup.com for creating interest groups, scheduling events, and finding local activities, emphasizing user privacy and community contribution. Blogging capabilities are integrated through services like White Wind, a Markdown-based blogging platform. Users log in with their ATProto account, write posts using Markdown, upload images, and store everything in their personal data service (PDS). Replies made on Bluesky to the blog post are automatically included as comments on the blog itself. Analytics and cross-posting tools help users manage their presence across the decentralized web. BlueSkyHunter offers growth and analytics tools for Bluesky, including insights into viral posts and trends. Fedica provides a comprehensive dashboard for composing, scheduling, and analyzing posts across numerous networks, including Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads, X, and traditional platforms like Facebook and Instagram. For streamlined cross-posting, OpenVibe, backed by Automattic, allows simultaneous posting to Mastodon, Bluesky, Nostr, and Threads, presenting updates in a combined timeline. Croissant is a simpler iOS app focused purely on cross-posting between Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon. Social review platforms are also taking shape. Skylights (distinct from the video app Skylight Social) allows users to review books, movies, and TV shows on ATProto, emphasizing that the review data belongs to the user, not locked in a silo. Popsky, currently in open beta on iOS, focuses on discovering and discussing TV shows, movies, books, and games, allowing users to track progress, manage spoilers, import Letterboxd data, and sync discussions back to Bluesky. The music and audio space is represented by apps like Rocksky, aiming to be the Last.fm for the decentralized web. It allows users to track listening activity ("scrobble"), view stats, explore music, and share tastes, with data tied to the user's ATProto account and plans for open-sourcing. Bluecast offers a real-time audio streaming service for Bluesky users, enabling easy streaming from any device with features like multi-guest support, karaoke, and sound effects. Beyond these categories, other unique applications are emerging. Woosh acts as a Linktree alternative for the open social web, allowing users to showcase profiles from various platforms, with data saved to their ATProto account. Cred.blue generates a score based on a user's ATProto identity and activity, aiming to provide insights into account health and engagement, complete with a leaderboard. Mutesky offers a dashboard for bulk-managing muted topics on Bluesky for a more tailored experience. AzSky functions as an open social alternative to Reddit, enabling community discussions powered by Bluesky. And for a touch of whimsy, Flushes lets users post a "flush" to ATProto when they use the bathroom. This diverse and rapidly growing collection of applications demonstrates the tangible progress towards a more open, interoperable, and user-centric social web built upon the AT Protocol. While Bluesky initiated the journey, the expanding ecosystem signifies a broader shift, empowering developers and users to experiment with new forms of social interaction and data ownership. The continued evolution of these tools and platforms suggests a promising, albeit challenging, path away from centralized control towards a more decentralized digital future.
