Bluesky's Reality Check: Back to Basics After User Drop

42 million users signed up, but 40% fewer people actually use it daily. That's the uncomfortable reality Bluesky is confronting as it charts its path forward.

The decentralized social network that positioned itself as the thinking person's alternative to X has released its 2026 roadmap with an unusually candid admission: it needs to get the basics right before users will stick around. It's a humbling moment for a platform that built its reputation on sophisticated features like custom algorithms and configurable feeds.

The Engagement Cliff

Bluesky's growth pattern tells a story of missed opportunities. Users flood in during moments of political tension or when X makes unpopular changes, but they don't stay. According to Similarweb data reported by Forbes, daily active users dropped 40% year-over-year as of October 2025.

The problem isn't the platform's vision—it's the execution of mundane necessities. Private accounts don't exist. Draft posts can't be saved. Videos longer than three minutes won't upload. Users can only post four photos at once. These aren't revolutionary features; they're table stakes in 2026.

Product head Alex Benzer didn't sugarcoat the situation in the company's latest blog post: "The basics need to be solid" before expecting user retention. It's refreshingly honest, but also revealing about how a platform with such ambitious technical architecture overlooked fundamental user experience elements.

Innovation vs. Foundation

The irony is striking. Bluesky can handle complex algorithmic customization and decentralized protocols, but struggles with video uploads and photo galleries. It's like building a rocket ship that can't taxi down the runway.

The 2026 roadmap reflects this tension. Alongside plans for improved discovery feeds and real-time event curation, basic items appear: better media handling, easier thread creation, faster uploads. The company is essentially admitting it built the roof before laying the foundation.

The focus on real-time experiences makes strategic sense. Bluesky sees surges during live events—elections, sports, breaking news. But converting these temporary influxes into sustained engagement requires more than just timely feeds. It requires an app that doesn't frustrate users with basic limitations.

The Meta Advantage

Meta's Threads took the opposite approach: leverage existing infrastructure, ship features fast, cross-promote aggressively. The result? Recent data suggests Threads now outpaces X in daily mobile users. While Bluesky was perfecting its decentralized architecture, Threads was adding DMs, long-form posts, and disappearing content.

The philosophical differences run deep. Bluesky champions user control and decentralization through its AT Protocol. Threads offers convenience and familiar Meta integration. For most users, philosophy matters less than functionality.

This creates a challenging dynamic for Bluesky. Its technical sophistication attracts developers and privacy advocates, but mainstream adoption requires meeting mainstream expectations. The platform's "Atmosphere" ecosystem—other apps built on AT Protocol—remains niche despite integrations with services like Twitch.

The Decentralization Dilemma

Behind Bluesky's feature gaps lies a deeper challenge: building decentralized systems is genuinely harder. Private accounts, for instance, require protocol-level changes to AT Proto, not just app updates. The company's commitment to decentralization creates technical debt that centralized platforms don't face.

Yet this same complexity is supposed to be Bluesky's competitive advantage. Custom feeds, algorithmic transparency, and data portability represent genuine innovations. The question is whether these benefits justify the current user experience trade-offs.

The timing pressure is real. Social media habits solidify quickly, and Bluesky's window for capturing disaffected X users may be narrowing as alternatives like Threads mature and X stabilizes under new ownership.