Bluesky adds group chats and plans communities as user growth stalls

Bluesky rolled out group chat functionality that supports up to 50 participants and announced a roadmap for “communities” with custom handles, signaling a strategic pivot as its registered user base plateaus at 44.8 million [1]. The move aims to deepen engagement by giving users more control over smaller, interest‑based spaces.

Key takeaways

• Group chats allow creators to set invitation rules and share invite links as embedded cards [1].
• Communities will have unique handles that double as URLs (e.g., community-name.bsky.social) and can be public, invite‑only, or private [1].
• The feature debut arrives in app version 1.124; media sharing in chats is not yet supported [1].
• Bluesky’s user count stands at 44.8 million, far behind X’s 600 million monthly actives [1].
• The shift follows X’s shutdown of its own Communities feature earlier this year [1].

Group chats debut in version 1.124

The new group chat feature lands with version 1.124 of the Bluesky app. Chat creators decide who may join, can generate invite links that appear as cards in posts, and can restrict invitations to everyone, only followers, or no one. While the current release does not yet allow media sharing, Bluesky indicated that additional safety and moderation tools are needed before enabling that capability [1].

Building “communities” on the AT Protocol

Alongside the chat launch, Bluesky’s head of product Alex Benzer outlined plans for “communities,” smaller spaces where users can explore shared interests more deeply. Each community will receive its own handle that also serves as a URL, and they may be set to public, invite‑only, or private modes. These spaces will be built on the open AT Protocol, leveraging contributions from the broader developer ecosystem [1].

Why it matters

Bluesky’s growth has stalled at 44.8 million registered users, a stark contrast to X’s 600 million monthly active users and the larger audiences of competitors like Threads [1]. By introducing group chats and community handles, Bluesky is betting that tighter, user‑controlled spaces can compensate for slower user acquisition, offering a differentiated value proposition—ownership of moderation rules and open‑protocol flexibility—that larger platforms do not provide. The success of this pivot will depend on whether the platform can foster enough critical mass within its communities to sustain active discussion, a challenge highlighted by the comparison to Reddit’s thriving sub‑reddit model [1].