Bluesky launches a custom feed for vertical videos

With TikTok’s future in the U.S. uncertain, it feels like major social media platforms are working overtime to ship features to attract the millions of people who may want to switch: Bluesky said on Sunday that it is launching a custom feed for vertical videos in its app.

Bluesky’s mobile app now has a trending videos section in the Explore tab, and like with any other short video app, you can swipe up to see more videos. You can pin the feed to have it show up on your home screen or add it to your list of feeds.

“We had to get in on the video action, too — Bluesky now has custom feeds for video! Like any other feed, you can choose to pin these or not. Bluesky is yours to customize,” the company said in a post.

Bluesky also acknowledged developers building TikTok alternatives on AT Protocol — the decentralized protocol behind Bluesky — such as Tik.Blue, Skylight.Social, and Bluescreen.Blue. These apps are in early stages of development, with running closed testing programs.

With the uncertainty around TikTok and other ByteDance apps, including CapCut, Lemon8, and Marvel Snap, Bluesky has seen its user base and crossed the 28 million user mark over the weekend.

Other social networks are taking advantage of this situation as well. Elon Musk-owned X also launched a dedicated feed for vertical videos in the U.S, and Meta announced a new video editing app called Edits to rival CapCut.