After selling off Twitter, Jack Dorsey refused to sleep on the job and went ahead to launch a new platform called BlueSky. The App in recent times since its launch has drawn a lot of attention from people within the social media and tech space as many are considering it to be just the alternative they need to replace the once very preferred Twitter.
Currently, the demand for the Dorsey-backed Twitter alternative Bluesky is overtaking its access demand from consumers, this is confirmed by the latest App Store figures published by the company. Bluesky’s community has surpassed 50,000 users, according to a new FAQ on the company’s website. According to data.ai, an app intelligence company, the decentralized Twitter clone has over 375,000 worldwide installs on iOS as of April 26, 2023, and has been ranking highly on Apple and Google’s app stores’ top charts by downloads.
One of the factors that have made Bluesky stand out has been the exclusivity factor — to access the app and get in you will need a hard-to-find invite to get in. The latter has seen the app embrace “early Twitter” energy, owing in part to the numerous meme accounts and shitposting. This gives Bluesky a frenetic, chaotic vibe that attracts many former Twitter users, particularly those who didn’t mesh well with the more serious and structured environment found in Mastodon, the other decentralized Twitter alternative.
While other would-be Twitter alternatives such as Post and T2 have expanded access to their respective networks, Bluesky invites have become such a sought-after item that they’ve been selling for as much as $400 on eBay recently.
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How to get a Bluesky Social invite code
Currently, there are mainly two ways to access Bluesky. The first is the easiest, and at the same time also takes the longest. This is simply signing up on Bluesky’s website.
Step 1: Visit the website for Bluesky’s invite-only beta.
Step 2: Input a valid email address into the text box and click “Join Waitlist.”
Step 3: Be patient and keep an eye on your inbox until an invitation shows up.
For those who cannot wait it out with the rest of us, another option is to simply know someone who has already registered on Bluesky. Existing users are given one code per week to share with whomever they choose. It’s not much (and any existing Bluesky user almost certainly already has far too many friends requesting a code), but it’s another way to get your foot in the door.
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Charts are blowing up
According to data.ai’s analysis, consumer interest in the app has also been a catalyst for its recent rise to the peak of the app stores’ top charts.
Bluesky has over 375,000 iOS downloads worldwide, having peaked on April 15th with 66,000 downloads in a single day after becoming Thailand’s No. 1 app across all categories. Prior to that, the highest daily level of iOS downloads was over 22,000 on March 22, 2023.
This 375,000 figure is an increase from Bluesky’s 240,000 iOS installs as of April 20th, 135,000 of which came just that month, according to data.ai.
The app was released on Google Play in late April, so data on its popularity on Android devices is still scarce.
However, despite consumers’ lack of access to the new social network, Bluesky has managed to trend on the downloads charts in several markets on both Apple’s App Store and Google Play.
Bluesky, for example, reached No. 3 among social apps on Google Play by downloads on April 24 in Japan, after previously reaching No. 8 among social apps on iOS on March 4.
In the United Kingdom, the app was ranked No. 10 among social apps by Google Play downloads on April 26, just two days after it was ranked No. 10 among social apps by iOS downloads on April 23.
Meanwhile, the United States has accounted for the majority of Bluesky’s recent growth, according to the company. This helped the app climb to No. 22 in Google Play downloads for social apps on April 26 and No. 11 in iOS downloads for social apps on April 24.
Data.ai stated that due to its newness, it is unable to predict the number of daily or monthly active users at this time.
The rankings are impressive not only because the app is still new, but also because the community is still quite small.
