This year, Flashes launched an Instagram alternative built on top of the Bluesky social network. It is now available on the App Store. This app offers another way to view visual posts on Bluesky. Instead of viewing them in a timeline-like feed similar to X, the app draws inspiration from photo-based social networks like Instagram.
Things you can post
Built by Berlin-based developer Sebastian Vogelsang, the app runs on the same underlying protocol that enhances Bluesky to the AT protocol (or Atproto for short). This means that the same requirements you see directly on Bluesky have the same requirements for posting images and videos.
Originally, it supported posting up to four images and videos for 1 minute length, but as of the Bluesky version 1.99 update released on March 10th, users were able to upload videos for up to 3 minutes.
Different way to flash like Instagram
Flash is somewhat similar to Instagram. This is because it provides a scrollable feed of photos and videos, user profiles, and even photo filters to enhance the image when posting.
Instead of starting your network from scratch, Flashes users will soon be tapped into the wider Bluesky community with over 37 million users. Even if not all users of Bluesky are on Flash, their images and videos will be displayed in the app as they essentially filter the BlueSky feed for visual content.
Posting to Flash creates a post that will also appear in Bluesky. (So, if you want to separate two networks, you can create a secondary blue ski account.)
Additionally, the app allows you to browse your own Blueski feed and choose from over 50,000 custom feeds on Bluesky, including those focused on specific topics such as art, birds, gardening, cat photography, or more than 50,000 custom feeds on Bluesky, including those focused on specific formats such as BlueSky video feeds.
When you view flash posts, you can like, repost and reply to them as much as you can with BlueSky itself. These interactions are also visible in the Bluesky app, but the interactions for BlueSky users are displayed in the flash.
Photographers looking for a place to showcase their work will appreciate Flash’s “portfolio” feature.
To toggle this setting, go to the Advanced tab of your user profile and tap Flashes Profile. Here you will have the option to enable the portfolio. This allows you to curate the images that appear in your Flash User Profile.
You can also further customize your user profile by showing or hiding likes, lists, and feeds, or choosing to use other media filtering options.
How to get started
To use Flash, you need a Bluesky account first. If you already have one, you can sign in with those credentials.
If not, you can choose to sign up for a Bluesky account from within the Flashes app. The app requires you to set up an account on your main BlueSky server, BlueSky.Social, but more technical users can choose to set up a custom hosting provider instead.
To create an account, you must provide your email address, password, date of birth and accept the terms of use. This means agreeing to Bluesky’s community guidelines and terminology.
Once you’ve signed in, you can start viewing images and videos shared on the Bluesky Timeline and other Bluesky Feeds instantly, or post your own media.
A subscription may come
Vogelsang hopes that Flash will help attract more users into the Bluesky community, including those who are less interested in experiences like Twitter/X. Instead, the app will appeal more to people looking for an open alternative to Meta’s Instagram.
However, it is not the only app building in this space. Another app working on a similar experience is Pinksky. Meanwhile, users of Mastodon’s social networks may prefer Pixelfed, which uses Fediverse’s ActivityPub protocol under the hood instead of Bluesky’s Atproto.
Over time, Vogelsang wants to add more features to Flash, including push notifications, support for multiple accounts, bookmarks and other editing options.
Plans to add subscriptions with premium features will help fund Android and web development. These paid tiers can also provide premium access to Skeet, the third-party Bluesky app for Vogelsang, and his video-centric app, Bluescreen.
Other planned features include improved iPad layout, long video support, posts that are only visible for a limited time (such as stories), and batch image transfers from other platforms. Ultimately, developers want to evolve Flash on a protocol-based platform while being compatible with Bluesky’s network.
This app is downloaded for free from the App Store and requires iOS 17 or later to run.
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