The Bluesky hype explained – how it compares to Twitter and the best ways to switch

In the wake of the US election, millions of users have been joining Bluesky every day. A decentralized rival to X (formerly Twitter), the platform now has more than 20 million users. According to data from Similarweb, daily usage grew by more than 500% after the election.

In a recent interview with NPR, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber said the network had been “growing by about a million users a day”. That surge can be attributed in large part to the dissatisfaction of countless X (formerly Twitter) users.

It’s been two years since Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion and rebranded it as X. A number of controversial policy changes in that time – including the decision to allow companies to train their AI models on users’ posts – have triggered a mass exodus to pastures new.

While it still has a way to go to compete with the 275 million active monthly users on Threads, Bluesky has won big off the back of the US presidential election.

That being said, not everyone has heard of Bluesky. If the name’s new to you, we’ve pulled together all the answers here – including what makes Bluesky different and how you can switch over from X.

What is Bluesky?

Bluesky is a social media platform which began life as Twitter project, created when Jack Dorsey was CEO in 2019. It then became a separate company in 2021. Bluesky’s majority owner is now CEO, Jay Graber.

Bluesky’s main differentiator is that it’s open and decentralized. It’s built on the AT protocol, an open-source framework which creates a standard format for “user identity, follows, and data on social apps”.

The original idea was that this standard would be adopted by Twitter. Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform put paid to that plan, leading to Bluesky to branch out as an independent social app.

Bluesky also gives account holders a lot more control over the…