Bluesky, the open-source social media service that began as an internal Twitter project, has gained a major feature as it looks set to compete with X and Threads. The service has finally been added capabilities more than a year after starting to onboard new users.
Direct messages are now available on both the Bluesky app and website . The default setting allows users to receive messages from people they follow, although the settings can be adjusted to receive messages from “everyone” or “nobody”. For now, Bluesky’s DMs appear to be fairly basic and only support person-to-person text conversations, but the company says it plans to add support for media and group messaging, as well as end-to-end encryption. line.”
Until then, the company notes, it will be able to access users’ messages in some cases where it’s “absolutely necessary,” such as investigating spam or harassment. “On rare occasions, the Bluesky moderation team may need to open your DMs to investigate broader patterns of abuse, such as spam or coordinated harassment,” Bluesky said in a blog post. “This can only be done if absolutely necessary to ensure the safety of Bluesky. Access is extremely limited and monitored internally.”
So, like most other social platforms, Bluesky DMs are probably not an ideal place for sharing sensitive information. But the addition of messaging will be good news for users hoping to connect more on the service and have conversations outside of public view.
