Bluesky photo-sharing app Flashes launches in beta

Flashes, a photo-sharing app that’s linked to X-alternative Bluesky, launched in beta this week before disappearing from the test store due to what its developer said were technical difficulties.

Flashes developer Sebastian Vogelsang said in a Bluesky post that Apple’s engineering team is working on a fix. Apple didn’t immediately respond to Fast Company‘s request for comment.

Flashes, which was revealed last month, supports photo posts of up to four images and video posts up to one-minute long. Items posted on Flashes will also appear on Bluesky. Comments from Bluesky users on the posts will appear back on Flashes.

Flashes could be attractive to users who want to veer away from Meta’s social media ecosystem and other Big Tech platforms. A way to do that, many believe, is through open social media ecosystems. That way, no one person is meant to control it. Bluesky, which is built on the open-source AT Protocol, took off as more and more people seemed to become dismayed with Musk’s shift to the political right. Bluesky has amassed nearly 31 million users to date.

Thousands of curious testers flocked to try out the Instagram alternative developed by Vogelsang. TechCrunch reported that 3,500 users signed up for Flashes within its first hour before it closed off. But a sign-up form for Flashes beta is still live.