Anybody in search of a substitute for Instagram may need an acceptable candidate in Flashes, a lately launched app constructed on Bluesky that appears to get all of the necessary fundamentals proper. Flashes technically launched on the App Retailer on February 24, however a sequence of updates launched within the days after launch have made the app a lot simpler to suggest.
If you happen to bear in mind an Instagram earlier than Meta turned it into its Fb substitute, you’ve gotten the fundamental gist of what Flashes is. It is an app for sharing pictures and movies, with some Bluesky-flavored wrinkles, like multiple custom feeds to select from as an alternative of Meta’s algorithm-driven default choice.
Once you first open Flashes you will be prompted to login with a Bluesky account or create a brand new one to make use of completely with Flashes. If you happen to use your present account, the app primarily repackages picture and video posts from whoever you are at present following into an Instagram-style feed. This setup additionally works in reverse: Any put up you placed on Flashes may also present up in your regular text-focused Bluesky feed.
The app itself options a number of tabs, with a house tab on your feeds, a search tab the place you may seek for posts and examine trending subjects, a devoted tab for creating new posts, a notifications tab that options all your Bluesky notifications and a profile tab. Flashes consists of some filters to use to your pictures, together with some customized feeds that you need to use if you would like, however in any other case customizations are minimal. It is actually a picture and video-focused model of Bluesky. That comes with some annoying drawbacks, although. If you happen to get plenty of Bluesky notifications, you will now get them twice, as soon as within the Bluesky app and as soon as in Flashes. If you happen to delete your account from one app, it’s going to even be deleted from the opposite.
Constructing a extra customizable, transportable model of social media that does not lock you to at least one platform is an enormous a part of Bluesky’s objective with the AT Protocol and what apps like Mastodon and Threads try to do with ActivityPub. It isn’t clear if one normal goes to turn out to be the default, however Bluesky has been choosing up momentum. The app hit 20 million users in November 2024, prompting a dramatic expansion to its moderation efforts, after which handed 30 million users in January 2025. Flashes design means all of these new Bluesky accounts are potential Flashes customers, too.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/flashes-an-instagram-alternative-based-on-bluesky-is-available-for-iphones-now-205946754.html?src=rss
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