Bluesky Adds Reply Controls, Profile Search

Bluesky has added some more Twitter-like features to its app, to make it feel more homely for those who are still looking for the best Twitter alternative.

First up, Bluesky has added new reply controls, so you can choose who can respond to your updates.

Tap on the “Anybody can interact” prompt, and you can then choose to restrict your replies so you can stop randos from hassling you with their less-than-helpful observations.

Which Twitter/X introduced in 2021, and it’s a handy option to filter out the noise, and stay focused on more valued community members, and valuable discussions in the app.

Bluesky has also added profile search, so you can find mentions from a specific user.

Which is also available on X, and it definitely does make it a little easier to search for that one thing that person said one time, that you can’t quite recall, but you know they posted it.

It’s also good for checking past references users have made, in order to counter their more recent statements. Probably not so great for those who’ve shared controversial opinions in the past, and are now in the public eye, but a handy feature nonetheless.

Bluesky has also added new search improvements and translation options in the latest version of the app.

The app remains an interesting project, though I still don’t see Bluesky being able to get over the critical adoption hump, and becoming a bigger home for real-time discussion, unless there’s a huge misstep from the major players.

Bluesky is the most Twitter-like app, which makes sense, since it was developed by former Twitter staff, and there are some 25 million people logging into the app regularly. But that’s a long way from Threads (320 monthly million active users) and X (570 million MAU), and Bluesky‘s growth momentum has slowed in recent months.

But then again, Bluesky’s initial rise came after the U.S. election, in which many found X to be too biased, and Threads to be inadequate as a means to follow evolving news. In that instance, Bluesky’s Twitter-like approach was far more beneficial, and with Meta looking to further align itself with the Trump administration, and X losing ground for most, it could still be that Bluesky could win out, in protest against the other two players.

But again, either X or Meta would seemingly need to have a major misstep to drive their current users over to Bluesky instead.

In that respect, I don’t think that Bluesky can do a heap to spark an influx of new users, other than remaining present and ready to accept use migrations if and when they occur.

But 25 million is still a reasonable amount, and with many high profile journalists and commentators making the switch, it seems likely that Bluesky will be able to stick around to catch those cast-offs, if they happen.