Flashes is trying to tackle Instagram and X, with assist from Bluesky

Abstract

Flashes, a brand new photo-sharing app, has simply gone into open beta, attracting 3,000 sign-ups inside hours of launch on iOS utilizing TestFlight.
The app affords a well-known expertise with similarities to Bluesky and Instagram interfaces.
Flashes advantages from its shut reference to Bluesky, aiming to draw extra customers and supply an Instagram various.

Bluesky is a substitute for X that has surged in popularity in current months attributable to Elon Musk’s administration of the social media platform previously known as Twitter. Now, a brand new Instagram various can also be gaining traction, because of Bluesky.

Sebastian Vogelsang, an unbiased developer from Berlin, lately introduced Flashes, a brand new photo-sharing app much like Instagram that has been constructed utilizing the identical AT Protocol as Bluesky (by way of TechCrunch). The app was simply launched in open beta for iOS utilizing Apple’s TestFlight service, and inside a number of hours, it had already attracted over 3,000 sign-ups.

Nevertheless, the app’s beta invites are quickly closed attributable to a technical situation. The developer is working with Apple to get them again up quickly. An Android beta can also be within the works.

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Flashes’ user-interface is a combination between Bluesky and Instagram

The feed for customers on Flashes is populated with content material from Bluesky, because the app “filters” photographs and movies from the platform on your feed. At present, it permits posts that includes as much as 4 photographs and movies which can be as much as a minute-long. Moreover, customers can swap between varied feeds they’ve on Bluesky to entry extra customized content material.

The interface is harking back to Bluesky and Instagram (see above), and similar to Meta’s well-liked image-sharing app, you possibly can like and touch upon photographs, add filters, and direct message customers. The app’s developer hopes Flashes will encourage extra customers to try out Bluesky and entice individuals who “by no means noticed themselves as a Twitter particular person.”

Flashes being so intently intertwined with Bluesky is working to its profit. On February 1, Bluesky announced it had reached a milestone of 30 million customers and 1 billion posts. With that many individuals signed up and posting, there is a good likelihood a few of them would not thoughts an Instagram model of the app — which Flashes is engaged on delivering.