Bluesky and Competitors Launch New Features to Attract TikTok Users

With TikTok’s future in the United States unknown, major social media platforms are proactively adding new features to attract the interest of users who may be considering other possibilities. Notably, Bluesky and Elon Musk-owned X have released big improvements, and Meta has announced the creation of a dedicated video editing program.

Bluesky Vertical Video Feature

Bluesky launched a new custom feed for vertical videos on Sunday, marking its foray into the burgeoning short-video market. The new feature, which can be found under the Explore tab, has a UI that allows users to explore movies horizontally, similar to how they traverse Tiktok. Users may, however, save this feed to their home screens or list of feeds.

Bluesky’s announcement post highlighted the platform’s move, stating, “We had to get in on the video action, too… Bluesky is yours to customize.” It also highlighted developers using the AT Protocol, a decentralized network that forms the basis of Bluesky, to build TikTok clones. Early-stage apps like Tik.Blue, Skylight, Bluescreen, and Blueise apps are in closed testing phases. This shows that the demand for decentralized video apps is high.

Bluesky’s user base continues to expand rapidly, surpassing 28 million over the weekend. This spike in growth is happening at the same time as increasing scrutiny for TikTok and other ByteDance apps such as CapCut, Lemon8, and Marvel Snap. With this new move to enter the short-form video content market, Bluesky has a shot at the growing pool of users in search of new digital platforms.

In a recent development, X introduced a specialized feed for vertical videos in U.S., ramping up the competition in the short video arena. This feature enables users to dive into popular video content, reflecting the method used by TikTok for discovering videos.

In other news, Meta has launched a new video editing app named Edits. As a strong contender to TikTok’s sister app CapCut, Edits provides a suite of tools designed for top-notch video creation, featuring sophisticated editing capabilities, inspiration tracking, and performance analytics. The app is set to launch in March.