Introducing Graysky: The First Third-Party App for Bluesky

Bluesky, the Twitter alternative backed by Jack Dorsey, is about to get even better with the launch of its first third-party app for mobile users: Graysky. While several projects leveraging Bluesky’s API are currently in development or testing, Graysky will be the first to hit the App Store, with a pre-order available now and a launch date set for October 21st. The app will also be available for Android. Graysky promises to enhance the Bluesky experience by introducing additional features such as GIF support, inline translation, an easy way to view everyone’s likes, a feeds-first layout, hashtag support, and more.

A Better Twitter Experience

Graysky’s creation was not initially driven by an interest in Bluesky’s decentralized networking protocol, the AT Protocol, which will eventually allow for servers to interconnect, akin to Mastodon. Instead, London-based software engineer Samuel Newman (@mozzius.dev on Bluesky) was attracted to Bluesky simply because it functioned as a superior version of Twitter.

Newman’s enthusiasm for the new social network led him to start building a third-party client as a fun side project. However, he soon realized that Bluesky was lacking support for several features that his app could offer. Notably, Graysky gained early attention due to its focus on providing a way to view users’ own likes when Bluesky had not yet implemented this feature.

Although Bluesky has since introduced support for likes on users’ profiles, Graysky aims to stay ahead of the official app by providing features that Bluesky does not. For example, Graysky allows users to see everyone’s likes, not just their own, similar to Twitter. Additionally, Graysky supports sending GIFs powered by Tenor, which are compatible with the official app, and enables inline translation within threads.

A Unique User Interface

Graysky distinguishes itself from Bluesky not only through its features but also through its user interface. Instead of landing on the home timeline (or skyline, as it is referred to in Bluesky), the main tab of Graysky directs users to their set of feeds. This feature aligns with one of the core differentiators between Bluesky and Twitter, which is the ability to subscribe to custom feeds and choose from various algorithmic options.

Graysky users can dive directly into the feed of their choice from the app’s main tab. Furthermore, a discovery interface allows users to explore all the feeds created by others. The app also includes a search interface for finding users, posts, and feeds, which goes beyond Bluesky’s mobile app, supporting only user and post searches.

Expanded Features Coming Soon

Although Graysky’s feature set is somewhat limited upon its launch, the app has an extensive roadmap for future development. Planned updates include support for drafts, bookmarks, automatically generated alt text, muted words, polls, notifications, expanded home feed preferences, improved content filters, tag-based language or content warnings for posts, and lists. The addition of lists in particular is highly anticipated by users who enjoyed curating groups of people on Twitter but currently lack similar functionality on Bluesky.

While Newman took the lead in building Graysky, he acknowledges the contributions of others to the project, including Bluesky users @alice.bsky.sh (Alice), @holden.bsky.social (Holden Foreman), and @matthewstanciu.com. Graysky underwent extensive testing with over 4,000 users before its planned launch on October 21st. The iOS version of the Graysky app is currently available for pre-order on the App Store, and an Android version will be released in the future.

Support Development and Future Enhancements

For the time being, Graysky will be free without any in-app purchases. However, in the future, Newman plans to introduce a subscription service priced at around £3.99 per month (just under $5 USD) for polls and a posts analytics service that provides detailed performance graphs. In the meantime, users can support the development of Graysky by sponsoring Newman on GitHub.