Anybody searching for an alternative choice to Instagram may need an appropriate candidate in Flashes, a just lately launched app constructed on Bluesky that appears to get all of the vital 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.
If you happen to bear in mind an Instagram earlier than Meta turned it into its Fb substitute, you have got the fundamental gist of what Flashes is. It is an app for sharing images and movies, with some Bluesky-flavored wrinkles, like multiple custom feeds to select from as a substitute of Meta’s algorithm-driven default possibility.
If 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. If you happen to use your present account, the app basically repackages picture and video posts from whoever you are at the moment 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 to your feeds, a search tab the place you’ll be able to seek for posts and think about trending matters, 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 images, together with some customized feeds that you should utilize if you need, 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 a number 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 would even be deleted from the opposite.
Constructing a extra customizable, moveable model of social media that does not lock you to at least one platform is a giant a part of Bluesky’s purpose 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 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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