The recent launch of our mobile app’s public beta brought a wave of new people into the Blacksky community, and also a lot of questions – What is Blacksky? How is it different from Bluesky? Why should I download another app? These are all fair questions we’re here to answer.
Blacksky is built on the same open social network, AT Protocol, as Bluesky and many other social apps. However, we’re building ours with a different purpose, different priorities, and a different vision for online communities. Here’s what sets us apart.
First, What is Blacksky?
Blacksky is a social app built for and by its community. It’s independently run – operated by its own team, with its own infrastructure, moderation philosophy, and product roadmap.
We started as a community feed for Black users on Bluesky. As our community grew and it became clear we needed more control over moderation and community governance, we built our own infrastructure and launched Blacksky as a standalone app.
Today, Blacksky serves more than 3 million community members while also building open-source tools that help other communities launch their own social infrastructure via Acorn.
[For the whole story of how Blacksky came to be, you can read this three part series our founder Rudy published in 2023 – Blacksky’s early days.]
So, how is Blacksky different from Bluesky?
Blacksky is Black-owned and community-funded. That independence lets us build around the needs of our community instead of shareholder expectations.
On a technical front, Blacksky and Bluesky are separate apps built on the same open network. Think of it like email – Gmail and Proton Mail are different service providers, but they can still communicate with each other. AT Protocol works in a similar way, which means you don’t have to choose one instead of the other to participate. You could have created your account with Bluesky and use the Blacksky app with the same login information, and vice versa, without any friction.
Both apps offer their own experience, community, moderation philosophy, and features while remaining connected to the broader protocol. For us, that means building an experience centered around community, collective governance, safety, and giving people more agency over how they participate online.
What makes the Blacksky app different?
Because Blacksky operates its own community and infrastructure, we’re able to build features that reflect our values and the needs of our community members.
Some examples include:
Blacksky-only posts
While open social presents some exciting opportunities for portable identity, it does introduce new challenges for data privacy. Not everything needs to be broadcast to the entire network, and the ability to keep posts private to our community was one of our members’ biggest requests.
This is why we launched Blacksky-only posts. The first implementation of permissioned data on the protocol that allowed Blacksky users to create posts that are visible only within the Blacksky community (those with a blacksky.app handle or on our #BlackskyFeed), making it easier to have conversations intended for community members without leaving the broader social ecosystem.
Community-centered moderation
We believe people participate more freely when they know their communities are actively cared for. Given the amount of harassment and discrimination Black people face on the internet, we knew we had to actively address these harms in ways no other social media has.
Blacksky is the first social media app to explicitly moderate for harms including misogynoir, anti-Black harassment, ableism, and fatphobia, alongside other forms of abuse.
Unlike other moderation tools, ours is built on the foundational efforts of Black Feminists, and that guides how we center community and include them in how we protect them from harm. By creating a foundation for freedom for Black women and femmes in particular on the internet, we are deeply committed to prioritizing the needs of Black people; and through this, we are equipping everyone on the larger network with the ability to keep the most harmed safe, which ensures safety for all.
People’s Assembly
We believe that being truly different from Big Tech isn’t in our size or the promises we make, but the mechanisms we create to give people a say in the operations and direction of the platform. Our People’s Assembly has been our way of taking community governance beyond feedback forms – developing a platform run for the people, by the people.
Through our People’s Assembly, community members can provide feedback, share ideas, and vote on important decisions about new features, policies, and product direction. In fact, many of our current moderation labels and our AI preference settings came from votes and feedback through the People’s Assembly.
AI preferences
The rise of AI has brought on a lot of justified fear, criticism, and backlash from many. After some open conversations in our community about how Blacksky uses AI – where discussions reflected the whole spectrum of opinions – it became clear that no matter what any one person believes, community members should have the agency to choose where and how (/if) they want to interact with AI.
In addition to labeling synthetic (AI-generated) content in our feeds, Blacksky has built AI preference settings that give people more transparency and control over how they come into contact with AI-powered features instead of assuming consent.
Community-specific trending topics
Every community talks about different things, has inside jokes/references – its own heroes, villains, and histories.
Rather than relying solely on broad network-wide trends, Blacksky surfaces topics that reflect what’s happening within our own community. Our trending topics feel more like the highlights from your favorite group chat, rather than a news ticker.
Do I need to migrate to use Blacksky?
No – you don’t have to migrate to use Blacksky. You can login with whatever AT Protocol login you already have (Bluesky, Latinsky, Eurosky, etc). However, if you want access to the features we outlined above (permissioned posts, platform influence) or be the first to get any other updates from us in the future, you can move your account to our PDS in a couple of clicks using our migration tool.
One of the biggest benefits of open social is that you don’t have to start over.
You can continue using your existing account while trying Blacksky, and your connections remain part of the same broader network. Instead of asking you to abandon one platform for another, open social gives you the freedom to choose the experience that matches your values and what you’re looking for.
The future of social is open
If there’s one question we hope this article answered, it’s this: Why does Blacksky exist if Bluesky already exists? The answer is that open social isn’t about creating one platform for everyone – it’s about giving communities the freedom to build spaces that reflect their own values while remaining connected to one another.
Blacksky exists because we believe communities deserve better infrastructure and ownership over the spaces they call home, that moderation is a reflection of values, and that the people who use a platform should help shape its future.
If you have more questions about Blacksky, the AT Protocol ecosystem, or open social, let us know. We’ll keep answering them as we build.