Flashes. Where Bluesky meets Instagram

There’s a new iOS app called Flashes that takes your Bluesky feed and displays it in an Instagram-like experience. It’s in beta but you can sign up for an account while there’s still space (700 spaces left when writing this).

Here’s what my profile grid looks like – cropped squares only for now but I’m sure they’ll fix that soon enough. Pretty cool either way!

It’s such a clever idea. It takes your existing Bluesky feed, strips out all the text posts and renders photos and videos in an Instagram-like experience. The one of yore that is, not the current abomination.

I’m spent time investing in Bluesky so Flashes is a natural fit, and it works great for my photography account where I only follow photographers.

It’s a pretty exciting evolution. It’s also wonderful to see the return to power of open protocols and APIs after the social media Goliath’s have tried so hard to bury them in their walled gardens.