Bluesky finally has DMs, with encrypted messaging coming “down the line”

Bluesky, the open source social media service that started as an internal Twitter project, has gained a key feature as it seeks to compete with X and Threads. The service finally added features more than a year after it began onboarding new users.

Direct messages are now available on Bluesky’s app and website, the company said in a statement. . The default setting allows users to receive messages from people they follow, although settings can be adjusted to receive messages from “everyone” or “no one”. For now, it appears that DMs on Bluesky are pretty basic and only support person-to-person text chats, but the company says it plans to add support for multimedia and group messages , as well as end-to-end encryption “over time”. double.”

Until then, the company says it will be able to access user messages in certain situations when it is “absolutely necessary”, such as in the context of an investigation into spam or harassment. “In rare cases, Bluesky’s moderation team may need to open your DMs to investigate broader patterns of abuse, such as spam or coordinated harassment,” Bluesky explains in a blog post. “This would only be done when absolutely necessary to keep Bluesky safe. Access is extremely limited and monitored internally.

So, like most other social platforms, Bluesky DMs are probably not an ideal space for sharing sensitive information. But the addition of messaging will likely be good news for users hoping to make more connections on the service and have conversations out of public view.