Anybody in search of a substitute for Instagram might need an appropriate candidate in Flashes, a not too long ago launched app constructed on Bluesky that appears to get all of the essential 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 advocate.
In case you bear in mind an Instagram earlier than Meta turned it into its Fb substitute, you’ve the essential 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.
While you first open Flashes you will be prompted to login with a Bluesky account or create a brand new one to make use of solely with Flashes. In case you use your current account, the app basically repackages picture and video posts from whoever you are presently following into an Instagram-style feed. This setup additionally works in reverse: Any publish you placed on Flashes can even present up in your regular text-focused Bluesky feed.
The app itself options a number of tabs, with a house tab to your feeds, a search tab the place you’ll be able to seek for posts and think about trending subjects, a devoted tab for creating new posts, a notifications tab that options your entire Bluesky notifications and a profile tab. Flashes consists of some filters to use to your pictures, together with some customized feeds that you should utilize in order for you, 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. In case you get lots of Bluesky notifications, you will now get them twice, as soon as within the Bluesky app and as soon as in Flashes. In case you delete your account from one app, it should 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 purpose with the AT Protocol and what apps like Mastodon and Threads try to do with ActivityPub. It is not clear if one normal goes to grow 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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