How to Build an App Like Bluesky?

Social media is no longer limited to the traditional applications that have been around from the very beginning. While apps like Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), etc. are the most popular applications that the world knows about, several emerging applications are starting to make their way into the big leagues.

One such application is Bluesky, and the growth that it has shown is incredible. People often think that the social media market has been dominated by existing players, but what they do not realize is that users are always looking for the next big thing.

Remember Orkut? It was one of the first social networks, but when users found Facebook and newer platforms with better features and freedom, they shifted with zero hesitation!

Similarly, with the recent outrage against X (Twitter) due to privacy concerns, and freedom of speech, Bluesky has garnered a lot of attention and users, thanks to its decentralized approach.

If you have ever been interested in creating your own social media platform but are hesitant to execute worrying about the existing competition in the field, think again as with people looking for a better social media experience, this just might be the chance for you to build an app like Bluesky and kick start your social network.

What is the Bluesky App?

Before we start talking about ways you can make an app like Bluesky, let us first understand what exactly this app is about.

Launched for the public in February 2024, the origin of Bluesky can be traced back to 2019, when Jack Dorsey (then CEO of Twitter) announced that Twitter was working on creating a decentralized microblogging platform for users.

While the vision was to eventually make Twitter a decentralized social media network with higher security, things did not go as planned. Long story short, today Bluesky has become a direct competitor of X (formerly Twitter).

As you might have guessed by now, Bluesky is a decentralized social network that promotes user privacy and allows users to regain control without having to worry about unnecessary restrictions and confusing rules. It sure has a lot of resemblance to the user interface of Twitter but you already know why it is so.

The application has found its path to success by addressing all the gaps with X and offering a more open environment for vocal users whose voices were being suppressed. And it seems to be working for Bluesky as it has garnered 30+ million users in a matter of months. The rise of the app continues as it is getting new users by the second.

Clearly, the application is a testament to the idea of reimagining social networks and indicates the acceptance of new platforms in the market. This is also a great opportunity for applications like Bluesky to gain traction, making the entire social media ecosystem open for innovation.

Market Stats of Bluesky App

If we dig deeper into Bluesky, we can find some highly motivating stats. Bluesky’s application has gained a lot of traction in the past few months, making it one of the fastest-growing social media platforms.

As of 1st Feb 2025, the number of users on the platform has reached 30+ million, with more than 3.5 million daily active users from the UK and USA.

As far as the downloads are concerned, the app reported a whopping 1.76 million installs in December 2024. Fetching, the majority of users are from the United States, Japan, and Brazil. With over a billion posts, the application is truly an engagement machine that keeps a user scrolling and coming back for more.

The application is not only a user favorite but is also attracting several investments as it has closed $23 million in funding, over the course of 2 rounds. The application is a clear example of how a social media platform can overcome all the competition and turn into a growing business that yields profits and garners user attention when executed properly.

It definitely offers a great opportunity for people looking to penetrate the market or start their own social media platform. The social media statistics clearly show that there is potential for more new platforms as people today are always looking for the “Next big thing”.

Top Features of the Bluesky App

What makes Bluesky a highly desirable application for users who are fed up with X is the set of features that it offers. While some of them align directly with those of X, it gives a refreshed experience to a user, without confusing them.

Some of these top features in an app like Bluesky include:

1. Content Creation Tools

Content creation is the backbone of any social media platform. The more content there is, the more people get engaged, and the higher the engagement rate on your platform, the better it is for you.

To enable creators, you have to integrate a certain number of tools, these include a text editor, video editor, music library, etc.

2. Engagement Tools

Engagement tools offer a way for an average user to interact with the content they see on the platform. Features like, follow, message, comment, like, repost, repost with a quote, etc. are engagement tools.

These allow a user to get involved with all the posts and content that other users have posted. This also gives them enough features to express their opinion on what someone else has posted.

3. Personal Profiles

A personal profile is exactly what it sounds like, a profile that holds all your information, your posts, etc. If someone wants to follow you or identify you as a user on the platform, they can easily view your profile and get familiar with you.

It is an identity card of yours on the platform, it represents you on the app.

4. Pinned Posts

This feature allows you to pin a particular post of yours to your profile. A pinned post can help a user highlight a post from a specific day, event, or opinion making the profile more and more customized from the point of view of a user.

5. Content Filtering

As a social media platform, you must be vigilant about what users are sharing on their profiles. While users have all the freedom to speak about anything and everything, you need to ensure that there is no sensitive or adult content being shared that people may not want to engage with.

Allowing a user to filter their feed helps in creating a more engagement-friendly app.

6. Algorithmic Feeds

Often called “Home” in social media applications, a feed is the section of the app that has all the posts, and all the content shown to the user. Every user has different interests, and opinions, and understandably prefers different content.

Other than these, some basic yet crucial features such as personalized post filtering, moderation, and labeling. All these features can help you build an app like Bluesky, however, the execution of these can be of great essence as it is the execution that makes the experience of your users.

Why Should You Invest in Building an App Like Bluesky?

Investing in an app like Bluesky seems vital as the whole idea of creating a social media app is certainly a good fit. With the rise of the internet, usage of smartphones, and accessibility of networks, almost every other person in the world is using social media, which makes it a huge market to enter.

Some of the key factors that make this investment a good decision include:

♦ Loyal Userbase

Social media is one of the only applications that has one of the most loyal user bases that keeps coming back multiple times a day.

♦ Growing Market

The market for social media is growing, valued at $218 Billion in 2023, and planned to reach $815.78 Billion by 2033 at a CAGR of 14.9%. This offers a great opportunity to grow and earn.

♦ Alternate Revenue Stream

A social media platform can turn out to be a gold mine as it offers so many opportunities other than user traffic. You can use multiple monetization strategies to generate revenue from your application.

♦ Sustainable Industry

Social media as an industry is a sustainable option as it will always be relevant to the users. Sure, there will be changes that you will have to adopt, however, if you want to start something for the long run, creating an app like Bluesky can be a great option.

♦ Open Opportunities

By entering a social media platform, you break into the huge world of IT, technology, and social networks. You have a lot of opportunities to expand your business from a social media platform into another vertical like many existing businesses have done, for instance, Meta.

Other than these, the sheer idea of being a part of the social media revolution that has been long due is something that truly attracts an entrepreneur to build an app like Bluesky.

With applications like Threads and Bluesky becoming popular despite serious legacy competitors like X, it is the right time to invest in an app of your own as people are looking for more decentralized social media platforms that offer better features, experience, and more importantly freedom!

Steps to Make an App Like Bluesky

To build an app like Bluesky, you first need to have a team of social media app developers with you. You can either hire them permanently or outsource your work to a development company that gives you the final product and supports your vision.

Once you have a team, you should start with the following step-by-step approach:

Step 1: Market Research & Analysis

Understanding what you are stepping into is crucial. That is because it supports the entire idea and helps you learn about the gaps in the industry.

Thorough research helps you identify the most loved and most hated features of a social media app so that you can create your app while addressing those gaps and refining the features that people like into a more optimized form for improving their experience.

Step 2: Identifying the Structure

Once the market research is complete, the process moves forward with the structure of the application. This structure is a rough idea of your application with all the features that you want and the type of look and feel you plan to offer.

This can be considered the first on-paper draft of your application as this is the step where you decide on the functionalities of your application.

Step 3: Choosing the Technologies

After knowing the features you want and the functionalities you plan to offer in your application, it is time to identify the technologies that will help in implementing them. A tech stack for social media apps is a collection of technologies that powers your application.

Generally, there are 4 components for which you need to choose a technology. These 4 components are:

• Backend: Node.js, Python, PHP, Django/Flask
• Frontend: HTML, React, Angular
• Database: MongoDB, Cassandra, MySQL, PostgreSQL
• Cloud Service: Amazon Web Services, Azure, Google Cloud Platform

Step 4: Deciding UI/UX Designs

After choosing the correct technology for your application, you can start designing the app. It is crucial to design so that you have real estate on your app to implement functionalities.

User interface and user experience are crucial for your social media app like Bluesky and hence this step will take a considerable amount of time to figure out.

Step 5: Initiate the Development

The development is the most time-consuming process of the entire application. This is when all your chosen features are implemented with the help of the technologies selected.

Every functionality is created, customized, and implemented for your application to work as intended. Several development trends of social media apps are kept in mind to ensure that the app is created the way it was intended. This is done by breaking down the app into modules.

With the completion of each module, your application is shaped into the final product.

Step 6: Check for Bugs & Quality Issues

After the app development is completed, the application is checked for bugs and errors. The development process is done by the experts however, the environment of development is not exactly the way it is intended to be used.

The app should be ready to handle multiple inputs, a high number of users using it simultaneously, and whatnot. Hence, creating these use cases and testing the robustness of the application for the same can help in enhancing the quality of your application.

Step 7: Deploy the Final Application

Once all the testing is completed, it is time to deploy the final build. Keep in mind that to deploy an app successfully and release it on all desired platforms, your final build should meet the guidelines of each platform individually.

This also means that your team or the developers working on your application should have experience in deploying the product. For social media platforms like Bluesky, things are a bit different as permissions and privacy concerns are a priority for all the stores.

Step 8: Post-release Support and Maintenance

You may be wondering if the job is done once you have deployed the application. However, what the majority of people do not realize is that the real job begins when you have a product out you need to keep your platform optimized to the best of the app’s capabilities.

This optimization is crucial as a well-optimized app garners more audience and makes it more appealing for the users.

Keep in mind that social media apps are never complete. You will have to keep working on innovating, tracking user feedback, and adding new features regularly. Some of the most popular social media applications have made it to the top tier list by trying everything they could and sticking with what works.

This also means your application is always under process. However, with a solid foundation and a dedicated team of developers, you have nothing to worry about.

Top Market Players to Take Inspiration From

Social media is not a new concept and certainly not a very welcoming market, to be honest. Sure, the scope for hyperlocal platforms, communities, and networking with one another is wide open, but it may take a lot of effort and well-built social-media applications.

Why?

Because when you build an app like Bluesky, you have to go head-to-head against giants like:

1. X (Twitter)

Formerly known as Twitter, started as a basic microblogging platform but slowly turned into one of the most popular social media platforms with over 400 million users. The idea was to create a platform that offers a character limit to ensure that there is no unnecessary information.

It is the true inspiration that you need if you plan to build an app like Bluesky as the features, interface, and the way things work are similar between the two, the only difference being the decentralized nature of Bluesky.

2. Instagram

With one of the most inspiring arcs of growth and a journey that is nothing less than an inspiration, Instagram has come a long way. The platform started as a social media application that allows you to upload pictures only.

However, the thing to learn from Instagram is that it did not stop innovating and kept adding new features such as going live, stories, and the latest and most successful, Instagram reels!

3. Threads

A similar microblogging platform to Instagram (meta), Threads is the latest take on creating a platform where people can share their opinions and browse through different posts.

The experiment by Meta is working out as it is directly connected with Instagram, allowing the users to create an integrated account, which means onboarding is smoother than ever.

4. TikTok

The sensation that TikTok has brought across the globe is a case study to follow. The application has made short videos popular and offers a great way to interact with followers.

The application brought a unique perspective into the way content is presented and how people can interact with the same. It surely revolutionized the entire content creation industry making it more accessible.

5. Snapchat

Another interesting application that offers a unique way of directly interacting with your friends through pictures. What makes this platform a preference of millions of users is the privacy options that it offers. Things like no screenshots, disappearing messages, and private conversations make it a cool and handy application.

While you may find these names intimidating while stepping into the industry, you will realize that each of these platforms has its own USP which makes them the best social media apps in the industry.

It is truly inspiring how each of these platforms is under the umbrella of social media but is still apart from one another in its distinctive way. And that is exactly the factor that has allowed these platforms to sustain and stay relevant over the years.

Cost to Create an App Like Bluesky

Ideally, the cost to create an app like Bluesky varies significantly, ranging between $50,000 to $250,000, depending on the choices that you make while planning the development. Usually, when you go with a complex application and all the necessary features, an ideal app like Bluesky will cost you somewhere around $125,000.

However, if you are only looking for a basic application the cost can come down significantly. Similarly, the more customized features you execute, the higher the cost of development.

When you build an app like Bluesky, you should have a vision in mind that allows you to be more relatable to the user. However, in trying that, you also have to be considerate about what it would cost to build a social media platform on your allocated budget.

Not only that but different factors affect this cost. Check them out in the next section.

Factors that Affect the Cost to Develop

If you are thinking why exactly is the cost of developing an app like Bluesky varying to so much extent then you should consider understanding the factors that make or break the entire budget.

• Type of Technologies Chosen

The tech stack you choose can impact the entire cost of development. That is because, when you decide you want to implement a particular technology, you have to consider the cost of resources, availability of resources, and system requirements for the technology.

All these can cost a lot to a user, making it more and more expensive to develop an app like Bluesky.

• The Approach to Development

Cost also depends on the type of development approach you have taken. For reference, there are two main types that you can choose from, one is Native app development which means developing different apps for different platforms like Android & iOS, and the other is a Hybrid development approach that creates a single application, compatible with all platforms.

• Team Location

The location of your team will decide the exact cost per hour that you will be spending on the development process. If you plan to hire a team from Asia, the cost per hour will be less whereas, if you go towards Europe, it may cost you a bit more.

• Third-Party Integrations

When you want to implement some of the extended features, you may be required to use an API that may be free or cost you something extra. The types of integrations also serve as a factor in deciding the final cost of your application.

• Customizations

Things when made on specific guidelines are often complex and costly. The same goes for applications as customized apps always cost more as things are not being done the traditional way and hence require more time to crack the process of development completely.

All these factors along with the type of maintenance arrangement you choose with the development team make all the difference in the pricing of your application.

This also means that while technologies and choice of features make the cost of development, the team you choose is also a crucial factor that must be considered.

How Long Does it Take to Develop an App Like Bluesky?

It can take anywhere from 3 to 12 months to develop an app like Bluesky. The timeframe is decided based on different factors such as –

1. Complexity of the Application: Whether your app has basic features, advanced features, or highly complex features can define the time required to develop it properly.
2. Size of Development Team: The time of development depends on how many resources you have dedicated to the development process of the application.
3. Custom Requirements: The types of customizations you want in the user interface, and UX can take a lot of time to design and execute and hence is a crucial factor in deciding the time taken to develop.

Other than these factors, the time to build an app like Bluesky also depends on the understanding between you and the team of developers that you have chosen. Keep in mind that it is actually a tricky situation when you are calculating the time-to-market for your application.

That is because, if you hurry the process, the final product may not be up to the market standards and if it is delayed too much, your advantage may be gone.

Hence, you should discuss the build of an app like Bluesky with the team before getting started.

Monetization Strategies for Your Bluesky-Like App

One of the key reasons why people are inclined towards building a Bluesky-like app is the monetization opportunities that it offers. With millions of users logging in daily on your platform, you can generate a lot of revenue. However, with great power comes great responsibility!

It means you have to be careful that you are not hampering your user’s experience on the platform or misusing their data to generate revenue. For a lot of you, it may still be a mystery how social media apps make money, however, it is not as difficult as you need monetization strategies that work fine.

You have to be diligent while choosing the right monetization strategy for your social media app like Bluesky. Here are some monetization for your reference:

➤ Premium Memberships

Social media apps can have premium memberships that allow access to more content, creator tools, and advanced features. Once you have identified your premium features, you can easily create a membership plan and charge it as you see fit.

➤ Ads

Advertisements for various products and services can be used to generate revenue. These ads can be displayed in different ways allowing users to interact with it, which the platform can utilize for direct marketing or affiliate marketing.

➤ Promotions

Content creators and businesses can use promotional tools such as boosting their posts, and running ad promotions of their posts on the social media platform to gain more engagement and reach a wider audience than their following.

This creates an opportunity for you as a platform to generate revenue by allowing these promotions as per the privacy policies.

➤ Purchases

You can offer in-app purchases to allow users to appear distinct in the applications. One-time cost purchases for social media avatars, custom profile badges, features, etc. can be a great way to earn more money from your application.

➤ Integrations

Different types of services such as e-commerce products, live streaming of events, and many other integrations can help you generate revenue from other services.

The opportunities are endless as you can also monetize data generated by the application. These are the top 5 monetization strategies to keep in mind when you build an app like Bluesky. Sure, it may be difficult to execute them all at once as you need to build a loyal user base prior to monetizing. However, when you are ready, you know what paths to take!

It is crucial to identify your monetization strategies before you start developing a social media app as it can help you integrate the features required beforehand.

Development Challenges of a Bluesky-Like App

Till now, everything that you have read about building an app like Bluesky might have motivated you to start today! However, you need to understand that the journey toward the final build of the application is not as smooth as you think.

There are a few implementation and development challenges in social media apps that you may come across when trying to build a Bluesky-like platform of your own.

Things like content moderation, building a community, and kickstarting your social media platform are understandable challenges that can be overcome over time. However, some of the challenges that you should be aware of include:

Challenge #1: Identifying the Opportunity

It’s really difficult to identify the exact opportunity in a social media market. Since there are several platforms already functioning and thriving in the market, it can be difficult to find a gap and use it as a USP in your platform.

It can take years of research to identify the correct opportunity and capitalize on it.

Challenge #2: Highly Competitive Market

The market for social media may be huge in terms of revenue, however, it is super competitive. Some of the older platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), etc. have captured the majority of the market, making it extremely difficult for a new entrant to penetrate the market and take advantage of all the audiences.

Challenge #3: Balancing Features & Privacy

In any social media platform, one of the biggest challenges is to maintain a balance between features and privacy. When people join a platform, they often do it after getting attracted to the advanced features that it offers.

However, sometimes to enable features, apps have to compromise on user privacy.

That is because some features use user data to make it more personalized. But you can never compromise on social media app security and hence finding this balance is tricky.

Challenge #4: Dealing with Bots & Misinformation

On a platform that is open to all, misinformation is one of the biggest challenges. Social media platforms are easy to access and post anything that you like. A platform must identify if the information is factually correct or conveys the intended sense.

Another issue is not posting which several businesses often use to create spam engagement for a better reach. These bot attacks are something that may rise in the future as with the implementation of AI in social media, things can go anywhere with automation.

Challenge #5: Finding a Reliable Development Team

When you want to build an app like Bluesky, you need to have a team as advanced as someone from an existing social media development team. With so many application development companies around the globe, it can become a challenging task to find the one that meets all your requirements and helps you create the app of your choice.

All of these challenges can pose a problem and might intimidate you at the beginning of your journey. However, keep in mind that all of these can be overcome easily with the right approach.

How Nimble AppGenie Can Help In Creating an App Like Bluesky?

Knowing that it is a challenge to find a development team that works as per your requirements, you can rely on Nimble AppGenie to help you overcome all the challenges! With decades of experience and highly professional developers, we can help you get the best social media app development services, helping you create an app like Bluesky in no time!

One of the key issues that a lot of people face when trying to build an app like Bluesky is the lack of experience. Well, that may not be the case with us as at Nimble AppGenie, we have some of the finest professionals with hands-on experience in developing and deploying robust applications.

Reach out today, let’s discuss things the way you want!

Conclusion

Bluesky has certainly emerged as one of the fastest-growing social platforms in recent years. It has also given hope to people who were planning to penetrate the social media realm but were afraid of the giant competition that exists in the field.

There are several factors that you need to consider when trying to build an app like Bluesky. From the development process to monetization every step requires precision and that is where experts come in.

Hope this post gives you all the insights into how things should work when you want to start building a Bluesky-like application. That will be all for this post. Thanks for reading. Good luck!

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Niketan Sharma

Niketan Sharma is the CTO of Nimble AppGenie, a prominent website and mobile app development company in the USA that is delivering excellence with a commitment to boosting business growth & maximizing customer satisfaction. He is a highly motivated individual who helps SMEs and startups grow in this dynamic market with the latest technology and innovation.