Since reporting a major uptick in users in response to X being banned in Brazil, Bluesky is sharpening its competitive edge by introducing support for in-app video sharing on its desktop site and mobile app.
Bluesky has been building out its in-app capabilities since it fully opened to the public in February as a decentralized alternative to X, like Meta's Threads app or Mastodon.
These apps are aiming to provide X users with another potentially less volatile space to commune since owner Elon Musk slashed the majority of X's content-moderation team in 2022.
Although Bluesky labels itself as a majority text-based microblogging social app, short-form video is integral to the user experience across the larger social-media landscape.
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To truly compete with X -- which has a far larger user base and has proclaimed a “video-first” strategy across its platform -- it's no surprise that Bluesky has decided to support native video.
According to the company's announcement on Wednesday, each post can currently contain one video up to 60 seconds long, with a limit of 25 videos per day per user. By default, videos will auto-play on users’ feeds, but auto-play can also be turned off in Settings.
Users are able to add subtitles to their video uploads and apply labels for things like adult content. Bluesky says that every video uploaded to its platform will be processed by content moderation firms Hive and Thorn to scan for content that requires a content warning or content that should be taken down.
Before uploading videos, users must also verify their email addresses for safety measures.
With heightened engagement on the platform due to X's ban in Brazil -- including likes increasing from 13 million to 104.6 million and follows increasing from 1.4 million to 100.8 million over the course of a week -- Bluesky has picked a strategic time to begin rolling out video posts.