Bluesky has finally added direct messaging (DMs), giving internet denizens one more reason to jump ship from competitor Twitter/X.
As announced in a blog post on Wednesday, Bluesky’s DM system is still pretty basic. For now, you can only send text and emojis, so you can’t share images or videos. You can also only DM other accounts one-on-one, so no group chats are possible. However, the microblogging platform said it’s working on adding these features in future updates.
Jack Dorsey leaves Blue Sky
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Bluesky also plans to add more privacy and safety measures, such as end-to-end encryption, but we recommend keeping any sensitive conversations in a secure messaging app like Signal, especially since Bluesky is reserving the right rifles through your DMs.
“In rare cases, the Bluesky moderation team may need to make DMs public to investigate broader patterns of abuse, such as spam or coordinated harassment,” Bluesky’s announcement reads. “This will only be done when absolutely necessary to keep Bluesky safe. Access is highly limited and tracked internally.”
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If you want Bluesky to peek into your conversation, you can report the DM directly to a moderator, who can review the reported message and the messages surrounding it for context.
Credit: Blue Sky
Luckily, just because Bluesky added DMs doesn’t mean you have to prepare for a flood of inappropriate and annoying messages. By default, Bluesky allows only people you follow to send you DMs, but you can change this setting to allow everyone to send you messages, or no one to send you messages. Accounts you block won’t be able to send you DMs, but accounts you muted can still send you their thoughts directly.
Bluesky revealed plans to add direct messaging functionality in a separate blog post earlier this month. While DMs were the first on Bluesky’s agenda, the company is also working on a number of other features, including adding video upload capabilities and improving moderation tools.
