More good news for those looking to break out of Meta's social app ecosystem for a more open alternative: An independent developer is making a photo-sharing app for Bluesky called flashing. The soon-to-be-launched app is powered by the same technology that powers Bluesky, the AT Protocol, and is built using code from the developer's previous Bluesky client, Skeets.
When launched, Flashes could tap into growing consumer demand for alternatives to Big Tech's social media monopoly. This trend has led to the adoption of open source, decentralized apps like Mastodon and Bluesky, among others, including the recently launched Pixelfed mobile appbuilt on Mastodon's ActivityPub protocol. This is also, in part, what is fueling the migration of TikTok users to Chinese app RedNote before US TikTok ban — meaning US users indicate they'd rather use a foreign competitor's app than return to Meta at this point.
Flashes itself is based on Berlin developer Sebastian Vogelsang's previous app, Skeets, his initial venture into creating consumer-facing apps for the growing social network, Bluesky, which he now leads 27.5 million users.
While Bluesky offers its own official mobile client, Skeets differentiates itself by focusing on the needs of iPad users as well as customized accessibility features for users who are blind and visually impaired, as that is one of Vogelsang's areas of expertise.
Late last year, Vogelsang also realized there was potential to build apps using this same codebase that would cater to Bluesky users who were more interested in visual content, such as photos and videos. Since Bluesky already supports this type of media, the Skeets app just needs to be reconfigured so that its design and user interface look more similar to other photo-sharing apps, like Meta's Instagram.
“I came up with the idea of having a base social graph and then just having different apps choose from that graph what they want to show,” Vogelsang told TechCrunch. “I found it very intriguing, because before we had these separated networks.”
He said Flashes could help capture new potential Bluesky users who haven't joined the social network because they've never seen themselves as a “Twitter Person.”
“It could give them an entry point into the network, into the whole protocol,” Vogelsang said.
However, the developer emphasizes that Flashes is not intended to be an Instagram clone, nor will it offer all the same features.
At launch, Flashes will support photo posts of up to four photos and videos up to 1 minute long, just like Bluesky. Users who post in Flashes will also have their posts appear in Bluesky and comments on those posts will also return to the app as if it were just another Bluesky client. It will also support Bluesky direct messages.
To do this, Flashes only filters the current Bluesky timeline for posts with images and video posts. (In the future, Vogelsang also plans to add metadata to Flashes posts so that Bluesky users have a way to prevent photo posts from filling up their feeds in the main Bluesky app if that becomes a problem.)
Flashes didn't take long to develop as it reused existing Skeets code. The app will also be able to market to Skeets' existing user base, who have now downloaded the app about 30,500 times to date.
Vogelsang said he is now working to integrate subscription-based features from his apps so users don't have to pay twice for premium features, such as bookmarks, drafts, muting, rich push notifications, and more specifically with Flashes by Skeets. (Both apps are free to use without a subscription, we should note.)
Later, Vogelsang said he also wanted to launch a video-only app, called Blue Screen.
The developer expects to be able to launch Flashes to the public within a few weeks with TestFlight beta coming before that. Interested users can follow Flashes account on Bluesky for further updates.
