Spring Awakening at Bluesky & Threads
After the U.S. election, the search for the new Twitter gains momentum again. Will Threads be caught off guard by the underdog platform Bluesky?
000 Checkin 👉️ For the past few days, I’ve been getting plenty of push notifications from Bluesky on my screen: familiar faces from Twitter are now following me there—plus, lots of headlines about its growth in the press and praise from U.S. network celebrities. Is Bluesky becoming the new Twitter? Time to launch a new season of my popup newsletter, now in a fresh 60-second format. Enjoy reading!
Daniel 🙌
Post-U.S. Election — Momentum for the Microblogosphere
010 👉️ Everyone is discussing the new role of X. After the election, Elon Musk has cemented himself as one of the most influential figures in U.S. politics. His close ties to Trump and strategic use of X have not only brought him financial gains but also significant political influence. In this light, Musk’s acquisition of X has paid off—even if he has yet to realize his ambitious plans to transform X into an 'everything app.' By now, integrated banking was supposed to be part of the platform.
The new role of X is being widely debated, though, in my opinion, overly so. Yes, Trump is using the platform extensively again, making it indispensable for some stakeholders, but this isn’t unprecedented. During his first term, the old Twitter also dominated the news cycle with every Trump tweet. History is repeating itself here.
However, as X increasingly becomes associated with the Trump administration and unpopular changes like the weakening of the block function—where blocked users can still see posts from those who blocked them—many users are motivated to explore new microblogging homes. On the day after the election, X reportedly lost around 281,600 users. For many, the platform already gaining momentum before Threads launched in Germany is the first choice: Bluesky.
020 👉️ Bluesky benefits and is receiving a lot of love. The platform reported a 15.5% increase in new sign-ups. In the week following the election, Bluesky gained about 700,000 to 1 million new users. As a result, its total user count rose from 13 million at the end of October to 14.5 to 20 million. Due to the influx of new users, the service experienced an outage last Thursday—just like the good old days of Twitter…
The first visual impression of Bluesky also brings back memories of the good old Twitter days, which immediately gives it bonus points for many users. But Bluesky offers much more. For instance, there are cool Starter Packs that provide a basic set of themed content, so new users don’t have to start from scratch. The Verge showcases the Starter Packs and other unique features:"
Here’s some cool stuff you can do with Bluesky
www.theverge.com/24295933/bluesky-social-network-custom-how-to
030 👉️ Threads is also growing — and significantly: In the first half of the month, there were 15 million sign-ups. After the U.S. election, Threads grew by the size of Bluesky. While net media and the public are giving a lot of attention to Bluesky, the regular user base is largely opting for Threads. And that’s not just because of Instagram: Threads no longer asks new users if they want to follow their Insta followers on Threads. This is because Threads users don’t want a copy of their Insta feed; they prefer to build their own social graph.
Conclusion: Even though Bluesky is positioning itself as the 'new Twitter,' in the end, it’s only in the literal sense. Just like Twitter was never a network for everyone, but rather for communicators and frustrated train passengers, the platform is mainly being discovered by niche users. Point for Bluesky. However, the overall victory will be decided once the X alternatives are firmly established — including a business model. And in that regard, Threads is in the best position. Especially when Threads enters the advertising business with a more marketable environment compared to X.
Question of the Week: Has Bluesky become more interesting to you?
Yes — I want to use Bluesky more, or I’m already using it more intensively.
No — everything remains the same.I’ll reveal the voting results on Sunday on Threads & Bluesky and in the next newsletter.
040 Style-Check 👉️ Threads Tests Custom Feeds
What it’s about: In the future, when you search for a topic on Threads, you’ll be able to save the results as a custom feed. This feed will then be accessible alongside the "For You" and "Following" feeds in the app and on the web. This week, Threads announced the public testing of this custom feed feature.
Background: Just as Bluesky is receiving a lot of positive press again, Threads announces this test. Custom feeds aren’t a new idea for Threads, as they’ve been a part of Bluesky for a while. Meta does what it does best: copy the feature. Threads users can already save searches and display them as custom feeds in the web view, giving them a Tweetdeck-like experience. Now, the feature gets its own name and some extra features.
Rating: Go for it! Hopefully, the feature will be made available to all after the test. I already use the saved searches feature actively to stay updated on certain topics. Custom feeds will provide Threads users with content they're interested in more quickly. This is important because many new users don’t quite understand how to influence the content in their "For You" feed. It takes some effort to figure out, and that’s not always immediately obvious. Threads needs to improve the onboarding experience. In the meantime, custom feeds will help new users—and for heavy users, they’ll likely become indispensable soon.
050 👉️ News from the Fediverse
WordPress Plugin for the Fediverse gets a useful update: The ActivityPub plugin now allows you to link your WordPress blog to the Fediverse with just a few clicks, creating your own instance. With the latest update, you also get a preview of how your content will appear in the Fediverse. If you've been hesitant until now: it's a must for all blogging early adopters.
Nerd Award for Mastodon: The post-election spring awakening passed Mastodon (around 9 million users) by, but the Twitter alternative is leading another list in the Fediverse. After the U.S. election, Mastodon surpassed X as a traffic source. More visitors are now coming to news sites via the Fediverse than through X, with Bluesky trailing far behind and Threads coming in last. Tech and network topics from Heise seem to resonate especially well there, adding to Mastodon’s “nerd” image 😄
Croissant helps with cross-posting: It’s been around for a few weeks now, but in case you missed it, here’s an app I highly recommend: Croissant. With Croissant, you can create posts and publish them directly on Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon. No more copy-pasting—and it comes with a sleek minimalist design. The app received plenty of shares and praise at launch.
Do you know someone who might find this issue useful? Then feel free to forward this email or share the link.
On our topic list: How does the user experience on Bluesky differ from Threads? - Threads for Corporate Influencers – is there any progress? - After the API launch, which tools make Threads better? - Open Vibe Test
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