Bluesky includes email verification – Bluesky, a rival to X, is launching version 1.52, which includes a number of updates aimed at enhancing the safety and security of its microblogging platform. The Jack Dorsey-backed platform claims that as part of a bigger initiative to strengthen account security and verification on the network, users will now be able to update and confirm their email addresses.
Additionally, the app will now highlight false links to alert users to them.
The latter, however, is not a more stringent moderation approach. Instead, it’s a means to mark links that users share in posts but that don’t match the language of their postings. If that’s the case, the app will notify the user with a “possibly misleading” notice that the link might take them in the wrong direction.
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Email verification is the bigger difference in security. According to Bluesky, users will soon be prompted within the app to confirm their email addresses. Additionally, users will now be able to amend their email in the app’s Settings if they lost access to their email account or accidentally typed it in incorrectly when they signed up. Users will need to give a confirmation code from their confirmed email address to make any additional modifications to their account after verification.
With the addition, Bluesky will be better able to compete with bigger networks like X that have more effective security measures.
The update also includes a few other enhancements, though these security tweaks are the most notable ones for the new social network. When utilizing features like search and suggestions, the app will now prioritize the users you follow. On mobile devices, you may switch between accounts by long-pressing your profile image in the footer. A new version of the Android image viewer makes it simpler to pan and zoom, and when viewing an image on the web, alt text is now selectable. The update also includes a number of other bug fixes and enhancements.
Due to its origins as a Twitter-incubated initiative that was spun off, Bluesky has been one of the more well-known Twitter/X competitors despite continuing to be an invite-only service for the time being. In spite of Mastodon’s 1.8 million monthly active users and Threads’ 100 million+ registered users, the company last month reached a milestone of 1 million registered users who have joined up for the service. Bluesky announced its initial round fundraising of $8 million earlier this summer. The company intends to monetize the service through bespoke domains.
The network’s real public launch date is still up in the air, as consumer demand continues to outpace availability. The fact that the app had one million downloads before it had one million users shows that there is interest in the app, even from people who cannot log in.
