Bluesky significantly improves how it displays threads — Note #2

Bluesky has just released version 1.86, on mobile and on the web. From my point of view, 1.86 is a major update of the platform.

The first important new feature is a social proof feature. From now on, when you visit a profile, Bluesky shows a list of the followers of the profile you are following.

This is a flagship feature of Twitter, which X has kept (so far). Bluesky continues to narrow the gap with established social networks.

The second important new feature is how Bluesky displays threads.

As a reminder, threads are made of a succession of posts, written and published in a specific order. They were popular on Twitter. Until now, neither Mastodon, Threads nor Bluesky displayed threads in a way that was as good as of Twitter, now X. With Bluesky in particular, the problem was with long threads. After a certain number of posts (ten?), Bluesky mentioned nowhere that there were more posts to read.

From my point of view, with version 1.86, Bluesky is now at the level of X. If a thread contains more than ten posts, on the tenth post Bluesky displays a “Continue thread” message.

Finally, on mobile, Bluesky shows an icon to go to the algorithmic feeds screen on the home screen (1 in Figure 3).

Until now, the icon was in the center of the menu bar. With the (welcome!) arrival of DMs a few weeks ago, the icon has been replaced by an icon providing access to conversations (2 in Figure 3).

For heavy users of algorithmic feeds like me, I had to go to the main menu (top left, 3 in Figure 3), then go to “Feeds”. The change required additional steps compared to the initial situation.

With an icon on the home screen, Bluesky once again offers quick access to algorithmic feeds, while still offering quick access to DMs.

Here is the thread announcing all the new features:

📢 App Version 1.86 is rolling out now (1/5) Checking out somebody’s profile? Now you can quickly see followers that you know.

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— Bluesky (@bsky.app) Jun 12, 2024 at 18:34

Bluesky is a rapidly evolving platform, and it evolves in a direction that I find fascinating. I may cover its evolution more often in my newsletter.

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• On your mobile, go to the App Store or Play Store.
• On the web, open a new tab with Bluesky. You can also force refresh the tab where Bluesky is open.

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