Bluesky now has DMs

Social networking startup and X competitor Bluesky is officially launching DMs (direct messages), the company announced on Wednesday. Later, Bluesky plans to “fully support end-to-end encrypted messaging down the line,” it also said.

The launch comes two weeks after the social network teased it would soon be introducing direct messaging capabilities. Up until now, all conversations on the platform have been public, so the launch of DMs allows users to chat privately while still remaining on the social network.

To access the new feature, users can start a private conversation with someone within Bluesky’s “Chat” tab. DMs are available on Bluesky’s mobile and desktop applications. For now, the feature only supports one-to-one messages, not group messages, however.

The new feature brings Bluesky’s user experience more in line with X (formerly Twitter). The launch also gives Bluesky a competitive edge over Meta’s Threads, which currently doesn’t offer native DMs (you can, however, share a Threads post to your Instagram DMs).

By default, only people you follow can send you DMs. You can change your settings to allow DMs from no one, only people you follow or all Bluesky users.

Bluesky has seen notable success despite launching without some of the core features available on X. The company has been building out its service over the past year and has the potential to expand its user base as it brings more capabilities to its platform.

For instance, the social network recently started allowing users to personalize their main Discover feeds. Users can now click on “Show more like this” and “Show less like this” buttons to personalize the content that the platform shows them. The feature is somewhat similar to X’s “Not interested in this post” option.

Bluesky, which has grown to roughly 5.6 million users, has some more notable features in the pipeline, such as support for video and anti-harassment tools.