Flashes, an Instagram various based mostly on Bluesky, is accessible for iPhones now

Anybody on the lookout for a substitute for Instagram may need an appropriate candidate in Flashes, a just lately launched app constructed on Bluesky that appears to get all of the essential 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.

For those who bear in mind an Instagram earlier than Meta turned it into its Fb alternative, you may have the fundamental gist of what Flashes is. It is an app for sharing pictures and movies, with some Bluesky-flavored wrinkles, like multiple custom feeds to select from as an alternative of Meta’s algorithm-driven default possibility.

Ian Carlos Campbell for Engadget

Whenever you first open Flashes you may be prompted to login with a Bluesky account or create a brand new one to make use of completely with Flashes. For those who use your present account, the app primarily 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 submit you placed on Flashes will even 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 may seek for posts and examine trending matters, a devoted tab for creating new posts, a notifications tab that options your whole Bluesky notifications and a profile tab. Flashes consists of some filters to use to your pictures, together with some customized feeds that you should use if you would like, 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. For those who get a whole lot of Bluesky notifications, you may now get them twice, as soon as within the Bluesky app and as soon as in Flashes. For those who delete your account from one app, it can even be deleted from the opposite.

Constructing a extra customizable, transportable model of social media that does not lock you to 1 platform is an enormous a part of Bluesky’s aim with the AT Protocol and what apps like Mastodon and Threads try to do with ActivityPub. It is not clear if one commonplace goes to turn into the default, however Bluesky has been selecting 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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