Anybody on the lookout for a substitute for Instagram might need an acceptable candidate in Flashes, a just lately launched app constructed on Bluesky that appears to get all of the vital fundamentals proper. Flashes technically launched on the App Retailer on February 24, however a collection of updates launched within the days after launch have made the app a lot simpler to advocate.
In the event you keep in mind an Instagram earlier than Meta turned it into its Fb alternative, you could have the fundamental gist of what Flashes is. It is an app for sharing photographs and movies, with some Bluesky-flavored wrinkles, like a number of customized feeds to select from as a substitute of Meta’s algorithm-driven default choice.
Once you first open Flashes you will be prompted to login with a Bluesky account or create a brand new one to make use of completely with Flashes. In the event you use your current account, the app basically repackages picture and video posts from whoever you are presently following into an Instagram-style feed. This setup additionally works in reverse: Any publish you placed on Flashes will even present up in your regular text-focused Bluesky feed.
The app itself options a number of tabs, with a house tab on your feeds, a search tab the place you possibly can seek for posts and think about trending subjects, a devoted tab for creating new posts, a notifications tab that options all your Bluesky notifications and a profile tab. Flashes contains some filters to use to your photographs, together with some customized feeds that you should utilize if you need, however in any other case customizations are minimal. It is actually a picture and video-focused model of Bluesky. That comes with some annoying drawbacks, although. In the event you get plenty of Bluesky notifications, you will now get them twice, as soon as within the Bluesky app and as soon as in Flashes. In the event you delete your account from one app, it can even be deleted from the opposite.
Constructing a extra customizable, transportable model of social media that does not lock you to 1 platform is a giant a part of Bluesky’s objective with the AT Protocol and what apps like Mastodon and Threads try to do with ActivityPub. It isn’t clear if one commonplace goes to turn into the default, however Bluesky has been choosing up momentum. The app hit 20 million customers in November 2024, prompting a dramatic enlargement to its moderation efforts, after which handed 30 million customers in January 2025. Flashes design means all of these new Bluesky accounts are potential Flashes customers, too.