Bluesky, the social networking startup now nearing 10 million users thanks to X’s ban in Brazil, will now allow users to share videos of up to 60 seconds in length on its platform, the company announced on Wednesday.
Designed as a decentralized version of X (formerly Twitter), Bluesky allows users to post text and images, reply and repost, and message users. However, unlike X, Bluesky lets users set up their own servers if they choose, pick their own algorithm, and decide how much or little they want their content moderated by subscribing to independent moderation services.
With native video support, the network will be able to better compete with other X rivals, including Instagram Threads and the decentralized service Mastodon, among others.
The company notes that videos will autoplay by default, but this can be turned off in the settings.
Each post on Bluesky can contain one video, which can also include attached subtitles. Users will be limited to uploading 25 videos or 10GB of video per day as the feature first launches, though these limits may be adjusted over time, Bluesky says.
While the company will require users to verify their emails to cut down on video spam, it will allow adult content. Users will be able to label their videos that have adult content, however, so those who don’t want to see this can filter them out of their timeline using moderation controls. Bluesky says it’s processing videos via Hive and Thorn to ensure videos that require a content warning are addressed and to make sure illegal material like CSAM (child sexual abuse material) does not get posted.
Videos can also be reported for violating community guidelines, which could affect the user’s ability to continue to upload video, the company warns, if the violations are repeated. When a post with a video is deleted, the data will also be entirely purged from Bluesky’s infrastructure, the company notes.
The feature’s launch may have come a day too late to capitalize on some of the more shareable (or wild!) moments from last night’s U.S. presidential debate, but video support has the potential to make Bluesky a more engaging place to discuss breaking news, politics, pop culture, sports, and more, the company thinks.
Video follows a number of updates to Bluesky’s app, which last year included an in-app video and music player that supported third-party content, like YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify and Twitch embeds. This year, the company played further catch-up with X with the launch of DMs (direct messages), a more personalized Discover feed, tools to hide replies, and more. Last month, Bluesky also said it was considering launching something similar to X’s crowdsourced fact-checking feature, Community Notes, as well.
Support for video uploads will be made available randomly to users in increments until fully rolled out, to ensure the servers can handle the influx of new content, the company says.