Social network Bluesky launched support for group chats on Thursday, another feature designed to make the app more competitive with its larger competitor, X. The arrival of group chats marks a significant evolution in Bluesky's product strategy as it shifts focus from building a public-only social network toward creating smaller, more intimate community spaces.
Read more about Bluesky's strategic shift in our coverage of social media features or explore our broader social media platform analysis.
Comparing Approaches to Direct Messaging
While Elon Musk-owned X recently doubled down on chats with the launch of a stand-alone XChat app, Bluesky is only now catching up by offering a way for groups to interact more privately on its platform. The timing of Bluesky's group chat feature is particularly notable given that X announced in April that it was shutting down its Communities feature due to low usage and spam concerns.
From Direct Messages to Group Spaces: Bluesky's Evolution
The startup added support for direct messaging in 2024, but it only more recently began offering encrypted chats — and only by integrating the third-party messaging service Germ. Now, Bluesky is offering support for group chats of up to 50 people, according to its official announcement.
That's smaller than X's support for 1,000 members in group chats, but it represents a meaningful starting point. The company indicated that it may increase this limit in the future as usage patterns emerge and technical infrastructure continues to improve. For related coverage on messaging platforms, see our social media tools directory.
Community Management and Participant Controls
Group chat creators now have substantial control over their communities. They can manage their chats however they like and decide who is allowed to participate. Creators can generate an invite link that can be shared across the web, including in Bluesky posts where it's displayed as an embedded card.
Chat participants have control over their own experience as well. They can control who's allowed to invite them to chats — with options for everyone, only people they follow, or no one. The default setting will be "only people you follow" unless users select a different choice for direct messages.
What's Missing and What's Coming
Sharing media in group chats is not yet supported, as it will require additional safety and moderation systems, Bluesky notes in its announcement. The company appears to be taking a cautious approach, prioritizing community safety and spam prevention before introducing features that could amplify problematic content.
In a series of recent posts from Bluesky's head of product, Alex Benzer, the company outlined its vision for community-focused development. "Today, Bluesky is one big space. Communities will be smaller spaces inside that where you can go deeper and hang out with people who care about the same stuff," Benzer wrote.
Benzer also explained that the goal was to build more community features on the underlying protocol (AT Proto) with support from the wider developer ecosystem. "On Bluesky, you'll be able to create communities, join them, post in them, and get updates," he added.
Addressing the Communities Void Left by X
The timing of Bluesky's group chat launch is particularly strategic given X's decision to shut down its Communities feature. Bluesky appears to be positioning itself as an alternative for users who want more control and ownership over their online community experiences — particularly those wary of centralized platforms and their moderation systems.
Handle-Based Communities and URLs
According to Benzer, communities on Bluesky will get their own handle that doubles as a URL — something like community-name.bsky.social or community-name.bsky.space. These communities will be set as either public, invite-only, or private, similar to the options available on Facebook Groups or Reddit.
What This Means for Bluesky's Growth Strategy
Today, Bluesky reaches some 44.8 million registered users, compared with X's 600 million monthly active users. If Bluesky can't reach the scale of competitors like X or Meta's Threads, it may need to find new ways to make its app attractive to would-be users, including by offering different forms of social connection that larger platforms simply can't replicate.
The company's shift toward community-focused features represents a deliberate departure from the "build for scale first" approach taken by many social networks. Instead, Bluesky appears to be betting that people are looking for an exit from platforms operated by Big Tech players and could be enticed to explore more open technologies where they feel they have more control over their online experience — and won't have their account disabled by rogue AI moderation systems.
Additional Updates in Version 1.124
Along with group chats, the updated version of Bluesky is also offering a new way to share profiles via a personalized QR code, similar to features found on other social apps. This addition suggests Bluesky is continuing to build out essential social networking functionality one feature at a time.
Final Thoughts: A New Chapter for Decentralized Social
Bluesky's group chat launch represents more than just a new feature; it signals the beginning of a new chapter for the decentralized social network. By focusing on communities rather than trying to replicate the scale of X or Meta's platforms, Bluesky may be charting a more sustainable path forward that prioritizes meaningful interaction over endless content consumption.
The success of this strategy will depend on whether users are truly seeking alternatives to centralized platforms and whether the AT Proto protocol can attract enough developers to build the kind of rich community experiences that keep people coming back.
As Bluesky continues to evolve, its focus on community-owned spaces may prove to be the differentiation that helps it stand out in an increasingly crowded social media landscape.
