Tired of the same old social media apps ? Meet Flashes — a fresh platform for partake in photo and videos . construct onBluesky , a Twitter alternative , Flashes position privacy and control at the forefront . Think of it as Instagram , but for the Bluesky community . Let ’s research its feature and how you’re able to get started .
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What Is the New Flashes App About?
heartbeat is a new societal sensitive app build on Bluesky , a decentralised micro - blogging platform originally create as an choice to X. Flashes is all about photos and television . At launching , it will countenance substance abuser topost up to four images or a video of up to 1 minute of arc in length , just like Bluesky .
Think of it as Instagram , but with an emphasis on seclusion and direct desegregation with Bluesky , which has now grow toover 27 million usersworldwide .
Here ’s how it looks like :
Is Flashes Owned by Bluesky?
No , Flashes is not owned by Bluesky . It ’s develop by Sebastian Vogelsang , an independent developer who previously make Skeets , a third - party Bluesky guest .
Vogelsang is utilizing the AT Protocol — an open - root and decentralized framework that power Bluesky — to make heartbeat . This enables Flashes to seamlessly desegregate with the Bluesky connection and use its live societal graphical record .
Think of it like email . you could have an email account with Gmail , Outlook , or Yahoo , and they can all still communicate with each other because they take after the same overt standard . Similarly , Flashes is its own app , but it seamlessly integrate with Bluesky because they both apply the AT Protocol .
Why Flashes?
Flashes is based on Skeets , an early app by developer Sebastian Vogelsang . Skeets launched as a third - party Bluesky client . It include enhanced feature like bookmarker , drafts , dumb word , and accessibility features for blind and down - visual sense users .
Vogelsang then realized the potentiality to make another app using this same codebase . This raw app would ply to Bluesky user primarily interested in visual content , like photos and videos . Since Bluesky already supports pic and videos , it was kind of easy for him to adapt the Skeets app intention and exploiter interface to resemble Instagram .
In an exclusive fundamental interaction withTechCrunch , Vogelsang mentioned that Flashes could help attract possible Bluesky substance abuser who have yet to join the social web because they never understand themselves as a “ Twitter somebody . ” However , he further insists that Flashes is not mean to be an Instagram knockoff , nor will it offer all the same feature .
How to Download the New Flashes App
Flashes is currently unavailable to the populace . The developer , Sebastian Vogelsang , expects to launch flashing on the App Store within a few weeks . Prior to the public launching , he will roll out a TestFlight beta program for iPhone drug user to try it betimes .
The app will be free at launch . However , since Vogelsang now has two complimentary Bluesky apps — Skeets and jiffy — he is work to desegregate subscription - base features from both apps . This way , user wo n’t have to pay twice for insurance premium feature . These admit features like bookmarks and drafts on Skeets , and plentiful push button notifications on Flashes .
you may trace the Flashes App account statement on Bluesky for more updates .
Thanks so much for your interest ! FYI the app is NOT uncommitted yet . I hope to protrude an open Testflight beta next calendar week and will post the invite here .
Will Flashes Succeed?
When it comes to scrolling TV feeds , there are multiple apps already on the market . Meta ’s Instagram and Facebook both have reel , and Threads is X ’s blueprint with Instagram - like content . However , not everyone ’s into these Meta apps or Elon Musk ’s X. We ’ve late seen the onset of decentralised societal medium platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky .
But boredom or censoring are not the only catalyst press multitude to try other apps . TikTok was hard popular but got shun in the US , which pushed American phratry not to Instagram , but to flock to the Chinese Xiaohongshu ( RedNote in English ) app , which cursorily gained the no . 1 spot for innocent apps on the U.S. App Store .
flash , if executed aright , could bridge the opening between something like TikTok and Instagram Reels . A program where you open , scroll exposure and video , interact with them , and post your own . All of it while being open source and decentralized — fathom like a good recipe for sure .
