An important step toward a more interoperable “fediverse” — the broader network of decentralized social media apps like Mastodon, Bluesky and others — has been achieved. Now, users on decentralized apps like Mastodon, powered by the ActivityPub protocol, and those powered by Bluesky’s AT Protocol, can easily follow people on other networks, see their posts, as well as like, reply and repost them.Those same people will be able to see the others’ posts in return, too. The technology making this possible is Bridgy Fed, one of the efforts aimed at connecting the fediverse with the web, Bluesky and, perhaps later, other networks like Nostr.Since the 2022 sale of Twitter to Elon Musk, who rebranded the app X, there’s been a surge of interest in decentralized social media. Apps like Mastodon gained a following in the wake of Twitter’s new ownership, as users explored what a network without a centralized authority may look like. Meanwhile, Bluesky — a startup originally incubated within Twitter — raised a seed round and grew its network to over 5.7 million users after launching publicly earlier this year.Other decentralized social media networks are finding footing of their own, too, like the blockchain-based Farcaster, which just last month closed on $150 million in funding from Paradigm, a16z crypto, Haun Ventures, USV and others.There’s just one problem these networks face in gaining traction against a rival like X or Meta’s Threads: Their users couldn’t talk to each other.Though both Mastodon and Bluesky are decentralized social media efforts, they rely on different underlying protocols. That means a Mastodon user can interact with others who post elsewhere on the fediverse — that is, other apps that use the older ActivityPub social networking protocol

Decentralization may be coming to social media’s walled gardens, and that means the future of social commerce could be more fediverse than it is metaverse. But what exactly is the fediverse?. At a literal level, the fediverse is short for “federated universe” and it represents an alternative model for social networking that prioritizes decentralization, interoperability, privacy and community-driven development — harkening back to the early days of the internet, when developers were focused on building protocols, not platforms

Social media app Bluesky has experienced a surge in popularity since its public launch, attracting nearly 800,000 new users in its first day open to the public.This rapid growth is expected to push the total number of users to over 4 million Wednesday (Feb. 7), TechCrunch reported Wednesday.The decentralized and open-source platform’s journey began with an invite-only beta phase last year, generating significant interest and even leading to invites being sold on eBay for $400, according to the report. It reached 3 million users last week.While Bluesky’s user base is still smaller compared to its primary competitor, Mastodon, the growth of Mastodon over time serves as a testament to the potential success of Bluesky, the report said. Mastodon had around 400,000 users when Elon Musk acquired Twitter, now X, in October 2022, but it has now grown to 8.7 million users.Both Bluesky and Mastodon attract users who seek alternatives to larger social media platforms like X and Instagram’s Threads, per the report.Despite some technical challenges during its launch, such as user-generated algorithmic feeds not working overnight, Bluesky quickly addressed the issue, and the app is now functioning smoothly, the report said.When announcing that it had dropped the invitation-only requirement and letting anyone who wants to join sign up, Bluesky also said in a Tuesday (Feb. 6) blog post that it plans to update its moderation services and release labeling services that let users add more options to their moderation preferences.Bluesky also described features that make its network “so open and customizable.”“On Bluesky, you’ll have the freedom to choose (and the right to leave) instead of being held to the whims of private companies or black-box algorithms,” the post said. “And wherever you go, your friends and relationships can go with you.”Platforms like Bluesky and Mastodon are tapping into demand for social interactions, including commerce, that are not centrally controlled as is the case with the major social media platform, PYMNTS reported in April.Bluesky said in a March blog post: “Due to the backlash against the perceived algorithmic manipulation of people’s timelines, some people say they really just want a chronological of who they follow.”