By cryptoadmin 
Anybody on the lookout for an alternative choice to Instagram might need an acceptable 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 suggest.
In case you keep in mind an Instagram earlier than Meta turned it into its Fb alternative, you may have the essential gist of what Flashes is. It's an app for sharing photographs and movies, with some Bluesky-flavored wrinkles, like a number of customized feeds to select from as a substitute of Meta's algorithm-driven default choice.
While you first open Flashes you'll be prompted to login with a Bluesky account or create a brand new one to make use of completely with Flashes. In case you use your current account, the app primarily repackages picture and video posts from whoever you're at the moment following into an Instagram-style feed. This setup additionally works in reverse: Any put up you placed on Flashes may even present up in your regular text-focused Bluesky feed.
The app itself options a number of tabs, with a house tab on your feeds, a search tab the place you possibly can 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 consists of 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's actually a picture and video-focused model of Bluesky. That comes with some annoying drawbacks, although. In case you get a variety of Bluesky notifications, you'll now get them twice, as soon as within the Bluesky app and as soon as in Flashes. In case you delete your account from one app, it should even be deleted from the opposite.
Constructing a extra customizable, moveable model of social media that doesn't lock you to 1 platform is a giant a part of Bluesky's objective with the AT Protocol and what apps like Mastodon and Threads are attempting to do with ActivityPub. It's not clear if one customary goes to grow to be the default, however Bluesky has been choosing up momentum. The app hit 20 million customers in November 2024, prompting a dramatic growth to its moderation efforts, after which handed 30 million customers 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