Flashes, an Instagram alternative based on Bluesky, is available for iPhones now

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Anybody in search of a substitute for Instagram may need an appropriate candidate in Flashes, a not too long ago launched app constructed on Bluesky that appears to get all of the necessary fundamentals proper. Flashes technically launched on the App Retailer on February 24, however a collection of updates launched within the days after launch have made the app a lot simpler to advocate.

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

Ian Carlos Campbell for Engadget

Once you first open Flashes you will be prompted to login with a Bluesky account or create a brand new one to make use of completely with Flashes. When you use your present account, the app basically repackages picture and video posts from whoever you are at present following into an Instagram-style feed. This setup additionally works in reverse: Any submit 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 may seek for posts and consider trending subjects, 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 photographs, together with some customized feeds that you should use in order for you, 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. When you get quite a lot of Bluesky notifications, you will now get them twice, as soon as within the Bluesky app and as soon as in Flashes. When you delete your account from one app, it’s going to even be deleted from the opposite.

Constructing a extra customizable, transportable model of social media that does not lock you to at least one platform is an enormous a part of Bluesky’s objective with the AT Protocol and what apps like Mastodon and Threads are attempting to do with ActivityPub. It isn’t clear if one normal goes to grow 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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