2024 In Review

It’s been a big year for Bluesky! As 2024 draws to a close, I’m excited to take a look back at everything that’s happened in the past year.

Alongside users, creators, and the AT Protocol developer community, Bluesky has grown from an invite-only app with only 3 million people to a public app of over 25.9 million people. In the last month and a half, Bluesky has grown by over 13M people, with organizations reporting a 2-10x increase in the amount of engagement they receive.

Here’s a look back at some key milestones of this past year:

Opening Our Doors

Bluesky officially launched in just February of this year. When we opened the app to the public, we removed invites, which were a tool to help us grow the app sustainably and safely.

At launch, Bluesky had an early community of 3M people. One week later, over a million new users had signed up.

Implementing Federation

Just weeks after our public launch, we achieved a long-standing goal by implementing federation. This milestone represents our commitment to creating an open, interconnected social network that respects user choice. Users can now run their own personal data servers, and thousands have opted to use their own servers instead of Bluesky’s infrastructure.

Stackable Moderation

In March, we launched labelers, the first piece of our stackable moderation system that empowers users to take control of their experience. Additionally, we open-sourced Ozone, a collaborative moderation tool that enables independent organizations and people to more easily run their own moderation service.

More Big Features

In 2024, we also launched:

• Hashtags: We added hashtags to make finding content easier.
• Direct Messages: In May, we launched DMs, creating new avenues for connection.
• Starter packs: In June, we launched starter packs, helping communities onboard to Bluesky more easily.
• Video Sharing: In September, we launched videos.
• Trending topics: In December, right around Christmas, we launched trending topics.

Many Small Features

We also launched:

• Account deactivation (June),
• Priority notifications (July),
• Self-moderation tools like detach quotes and hide reply (August),
• Pinned posts (October), and
• The thread composer (November).

Looking forward to 2025

Building on this year's achievements, we're excited to introduce more features and improvements. Your feedback continues to shape Bluesky’s evolution, and we deeply appreciate the trust you've placed in Bluesky this year.