Anybody on the lookout for an alternative choice to Instagram might 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 collection of updates launched within the days after launch have made the app a lot simpler to advocate.
When you bear in mind an Instagram earlier than Meta turned it into its Fb substitute, you will have the essential gist of what Flashes is. It is an app for sharing photographs and movies, with some Bluesky-flavored wrinkles, like multiple custom feeds to select from as an alternative of Meta’s algorithm-driven default choice.
If you first open Flashes you may be prompted to login with a Bluesky account or create a brand new one to make use of solely with Flashes. When you use your present 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 submit 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 possibly can seek for posts and think about trending subjects, a devoted tab for creating new posts, a notifications tab that options all your Bluesky notifications and a profile tab. Flashes contains some filters to use to your photographs, 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. When you get a whole lot of Bluesky notifications, you may now get them twice, as soon as within the Bluesky app and as soon as in Flashes. When you delete your account from one app, it would even be deleted from the opposite.
Constructing a extra customizable, moveable model of social media that does not lock you to 1 platform is a giant 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 commonplace goes to grow to be the default, however Bluesky has been selecting 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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