There is a new Bluesky application during a popular iOS applications developer. Rocking tapsThe company behind the popular customer Mastodon Ivory, born from its previous efforts with Tweetbot (RIP), is preparing a new application called Phoenix, designed for the growing social network of Bluesky of more than 32 million users.
In an article on Bluesky, the company shared its website teasing the new application, which should be launched later this summer.
On his site, Tapbots said that his work on a Bluesky client does not mean that he abandons his efforts in the Fediverse, also known as the open social web. However, the development of Ivory will temporarily slow down as new efforts are underway.
Ivory, launched in 2023, brought back the appearance and feeling of tweetbot and several of its features to offer an alternative to the official social application of Mastodon, an open source and decentralized alternative to larger platforms as X. As a federated application, Ivory is integrated into Activitypub, the protocol feeding a host, social applications, Mastodon, but also from Peertube, Pixelds, notably mastodon, but also patrol, peak, Metta, Massodon, but also Pix Flipboard and others.
Bluesky, on the other hand, is built on a different protocol, the AT (or ATPRoto protocol for short).
Since the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk and its transformation into X, many former Twitter users have passed to other networks, including Mastodon and Bluesky. For an independent operation such as Tapnbots, this meant that its customers were divided between two services, which makes it more difficult to generate income with a single application.
“… So that we continue to prosper as a business, we must take care of both,” said Tapbots on his website. “Unfortunately, we cannot survive alone on mastodon.”
The company also explains that it has decided to launch a dedicated application for users of Bluesky instead of combining the two networks in a single application, as it will offer users a better experience. Those who want to maintain a presence on the two social networks will be able to benefit from a cross-functionality of publication between the DOGUES, he added.
Unfortunately for mastodon users, Ivory work will have to slow down while the team works to launch Phoenix.
“It would be a lie if we said that Ivory would be in full development while we are trying to put Operational Phoenix during execution,” explains the website. “However, we did not want to start the development of Phoenix before our exit from ivory v2.3. Once Phoenix is released, development will occur simultaneously and the two applications will receive all the enormous improvements that we have planned in the applications. »»
The news of the launch of Phoenix was reported for the first time by Macstories.
Although the company has not announced the Phoenix monetization strategy, it will probably be a subscription model similar to Ivory – a free application with integrated purchases to access Premium features. Currently, ivory costs $ 1.99 per month or $ 14.99 per year.
Phoenix will enter a limited public alpha phase before its launch of the summer of 2025.
