• by Colin Kirkland , December 9, 2024

Decentralized X competitor Bluesky has released mockups teasing a premium subscription model with a list of potential user features on developer platform Github.

According to one particular mockup, Bluesky is planning to ask its growing user base to upgrade to “Bluesky+” for $8 per month, or $72 per year, in order to gain access “to exclusive features, custom app icons, higher video quality, and more.”

“Subscribing to Bluesky+ helps ensure that our work to build an open, secure, and user-first internet can continue,” another mockup reads, listing additional premium features like profile customizations, enhanced video upload limits, inline post translations, post analytics, and bookmark folders.

Bluesky, which launched in direct competition with microblogging apps like X and Threads, first announced its decision to build out a subscription model in October, when the company raised $15 million in Series A funding.

“We will begin developing a subscription model,” it wrote in the announcement, also adding that outside of premium offerings, the app “will always be free to use” and that it “won’t uprank accounts simply because they are subscribing to a paid tier,” like X.

Bluesky's list of premium features have not been finalized. On GitHub, the company clearly states that the paid offerings could likely change ahead of an official launch.

In addition, Bluesky software engineer Dan Abramov responded to a post thread about the mockups, stating that they may not match what will be released. “Some of these are likely to make it, but please don't take this as an actual list of planned features,” he wrote. “We’ll announce the actual list when more work is done.”

Although Bluesky has far fewer users than X or Threads, it has been growing steadily since going public earlier this year, with users recently flocking to the platform in response to political actions taken by X owner Elon Musk and the outcome of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election.