Bluesky is giving users an early look at what it wants to improve in the year ahead, and the message is clear: the social network wants to feel smarter, faster, and more useful in the moments people care about most. The company says it’s investing in a better Discover experience, stronger “who to follow” recommendations, and features that make the platform feel more real-time, especially around big events.
But there’s another theme running through Bluesky’s update: it knows it still needs to nail the fundamentals.
Bluesky opened to the public in early 2024 after an invite-only phase, and it has grown quickly for a decentralized alternative to X and Threads. Data sourced from the Bluesky API for developers shows the network has surpassed 42 million users. Even so, Bluesky admits it’s still behind larger rivals on several everyday features people expect from a modern social app.
Bluesky’s head of product, Alex Benzer, summed it up by stressing that the basics have to be solid if the platform wants people to stick around. That concern comes at a time when engagement has reportedly softened: Similarweb data cited by Forbes noted a year-over-year decline in daily active users as of October 2025.
So what does “getting the basics right” mean in practical terms? For starters, Bluesky wants to bring drafts to the app and improve the posting experience. Benzer also called out media handling as a priority, arguing the current limits aren’t good enough. Three-minute video support, he said, feels too restrictive, and video uploads should be faster. On top of that, Bluesky wants to let users post more than four photos at once and make it easier to create threads.
One missing item that many users still ask about is private accounts. That wasn’t included in the near-term list. Bluesky has previously explained that private accounts are a harder problem because they require support at the protocol level. The long-term plan is for the AT Protocol (also called AT Proto) to eventually enable private accounts, but Bluesky has indicated this won’t arrive anytime soon.
Beyond core features, Bluesky is aiming to improve how people discover content and connect with others. The company is working on upgrades to the algorithmic Discover feed, including potential topic tags that help guide users to posts aligned with their interests. Better “who to follow” suggestions are also on the way, with the idea that finding the right accounts faster leads to a better experience and stronger retention.
Another major goal is making Bluesky feel more live and immediate. Benzer pointed to scenarios like sports, major news, and elections, where users want timely updates and a sense of shared experience. To support that, Bluesky is building internal curation tools designed to create high-quality custom feeds during live events. The company is also exploring new feed features intended to make the experience feel more like spending time in a community and less like endlessly scrolling.
Bluesky also wants to keep expanding what its community calls the “Atmosphere,” meaning the broader ecosystem of apps connected through the AT Protocol. A key focus here is interoperability, or making Bluesky work more seamlessly with other AT Protocol-powered services. One example already in place: if someone goes live on streaming platforms like Twitch or Streamplace, a LIVE badge can appear on their Bluesky profile photo. Benzer teased that another integration like this should be arriving soon.
All of this is happening in a competitive environment where user attention can shift quickly. Bluesky growth and activity tend to spike during controversial changes on X or during politically tense moments, but usage patterns can fluctuate. Meanwhile, Threads remains the closest large-scale competitor in the “post-based social network” space, and recent third-party data indicates Threads is pulling ahead of X in daily mobile users (even if X still leads on desktop web).
Threads benefits from deep resources, broad cross-promotion, and easier onboarding, which has helped it ship features quickly. Over the past year, it has rolled out additions like interest-based communities, stronger filters, direct messages, long-form text, and disappearing posts, while also moving toward a more creator-friendly content mix.
For Bluesky, the roadmap signals a push to compete on two fronts at once: sharpening the unique advantages of decentralized social media, like customizable feeds and configurable algorithms, while also catching up on everyday essentials that make an app feel complete. If Bluesky can combine a better Discover experience, stronger recommendations, faster media tools, and a more real-time vibe with long-requested basics like drafts, it may be able to turn its rapid sign-ups into more consistent daily use.
