Bluesky catches up with X with native video support

Bluesky, the social networking startup that now has nearly 10 million users thanks to Brazil's X ban, will now allow users to share videos up to 60 seconds long on its platform, the company announced Wednesday.

Designed as a decentralized version of X (formerly Twitter), Bluesky allows users to post, reply, and repost text and images, as well as send messages to users. However, unlike X, Bluesky allows users to set up their own servers if they wish, choose their own algorithm, and decide how much or little moderation they want their content to have by subscribing to independent moderation services.

Native video support will enable the network to better compete with other X competitors, including Instagram Threads and the decentralized service Mastodon, among others.

The company points out that videos autoplay by default, but this can be disabled in the settings.

Each post on Bluesky can include a video, which can also include subtitles. Users will be able to upload a maximum of 25 videos or 10GB of video per day when the feature launches, but these limits may be adjusted over time, Bluesky says.

While the company will require its users to verify their emails to reduce video spam, it will allow adult content. However, users will be able to flag their videos containing adult content so that those who don't want to see it can filter it out of their timeline using moderation controls. Bluesky says it processes videos through Hive and Thorn to ensure that videos that require a content warning are honored and that illegal material such as CSAM (child sexual abuse material) is not posted.

Videos can also be reported if they violate community guidelines. Repeated violations could affect the user's ability to continue uploading videos, the company warns. When a post with a video is deleted, the data is also completely deleted from Bluesky's infrastructure, the company points out.

While the launch of this feature may come a day late to capitalize on the more shareable (or wild!) moments of yesterday's U.S. presidential debate, the company believes video support could make Bluesky a more engaging place for discussions about breaking news, politics, pop culture, sports and more.

Video follows a series of updates to the Bluesky app, which last year included an in-app video and music player that supported third-party content like YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify and Twitch embeds. This year, the company continued to catch up with the introduction of DMs (direct messages), a more personal Discover feed, tools to hide replies and more. Last month, Bluesky also said it was considering introducing something similar to X's crowdsourced fact-checking feature, “Community Notes.”

Support for video uploads will be rolled out to users gradually and randomly until it is fully rolled out, the company says, to ensure servers can handle the influx of new content.