Tweetbot creators tease Phoenix, a new Bluesky client

Fans of Tweetbot for Twitter and Ivory for Mastodon have reason to get excited all over again as the developers at Tapbots tease a Bluesky client called Phoenix.

When Elon Musk took over Twitter, no one could have predicted the chaos that ensued. The mass firings, restructuring, and user-aggressive changes led Twitter to a fast user-count decline as the less-popular X emerged.

As X struggles for relevancy, the death of Twitter — and the Mac app in the process — did create some interesting new options. Tapbots is back to make another excellent client for an emerging player in the space.

The new app is called Phoenix, and it is a Bluesky client that is expected to launch in the summer of 2025. Tapbots will continue to work on Ivory for Mastodon in tandem, so users of that platform need not worry.

The three-person team at Tapbots created one of the most popular third-party Twitter clients called Tweetbot, which debuted in 2011. It was shut down abruptly when Elon Musk ordered Twitter to stop supporting third-party clients without warning.

The Tapbots developers were quick to work on a new client called Ivory for Mastodon. At the time, there was no way to predict which platform would become the new Twitter as the tech exodus from X continued.

Mastodon felt like a good fit, and even today much of the active tech community still uses Mastodon actively. It seemed like the right home for Tapbots, and remains a priority for the company.

However, in spite of rapid growth, Mastodon proved to be one step too far for casual social media users to call it home. It sits today at around 10 million accounts and 1 million active users with a strong presence of tech, gamer, and nerd culture.

Niche communities are awesome, but they can't always pay the bills.

Two line graphs showing Mastodon user growth and active users, both fluctuating from 2023 to 2025, with a notable label indicating Twitter's ownership change.

Mastodon has grown a lot, but it's not paying the bills. Image source: mastodon-analytics.com

Another alternative could have been Threads, but leaving X for Threads would have defeated the purpose given Meta's approach and policies. Besides, Meta doesn't seem keen on supporting third-party apps anytime soon, if ever.

Of the few other options vying for attention, Bluesky was an early contender. It was a project initially started by Twitter's Jack Dorsey, who wanted to create a decentralized social media — not that dissimilar from Mastodon's Fediverse.

Dorsey is no longer part of the Bluesky project, but the idea remained and grew. It runs on the ATProtocol and has been called "billionaire proof." Meaning, no one can buy Bluesky because the users can just switch hosts.

The concept is a good one, but what really sold the platform is simplicity. People could just sign up for an account without needing to worry about servers.

Advanced users can use their own domain for their handle, but that's as complex as it gets.

Users were especially attracted to Bluesky's unique features like creating starter packs that let new users follow groups of people with one tap. The lack of a central algorithm, meaning the main timeline is chronological, has also proven popular. Plus, users can follow different algorithmic timelines and switch between them.

Bluesky has surged in popularity, leading to a 30 million user milestone in February 2025. The user diversity at Bluesky is closer to Twitter's in its prime — people from around the world in all walks of life.

30M users 1B posts
bluesky milestone
achieved this week
— Bluesky (@bsky.app) Feb 1, 2025 at 4:56 PM

The potential ban of TikTok and Meta allowing hate speech and misinformation has created demand for alternatives to Instagram and TikTok. There are already several projects using the ATProtocol in the works like Flashes, an Instagram alternative, and Skylight, a TikTok alternative.

The increasing popularity of Bluesky is what led Tapbots to Phoenix. There is still a strong tech presence on Mastodon, but many have migrated to Bluesky full time, splitting the user base.

A short Q&A on the Phoenix announcement page says the app and Ivory will support cross posting between Mastodon and Bluesky, but the apps will remain separate. Mastodon remains Tapbots home on the social web.

So, Ivory and Phoenix will exist in tandem. There is no word about a public beta test via TestFlight, but the app itself is expected to launch in the summer.

While many people still use X, including Apple executives and advertisers, it isn't the same platform many of us enjoyed before the Musk takeover. AppleInsider can still be found on X to reach users that only use that platform, but there are also accounts on Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky.

6 Comments

9secondkox2 9 Years · 3283 comments

About 2 weeks ago

I guess this ok for Bluesky users. Who are dissatisfied with the BS UX.

BS is at around 1% of the daily active users of X, so it may not be that profitable for the developer - especially compared to the days they were able to gather Twitter customers.

X is a massivre and much better platform and much less of an echo chamber, so it’s no wonder it is hitting a resurgence now thst its run efficiently. Community notes is a great misinformation killer as well - so much so that Facebook is copying it. Avoids some of the centralized falsehoods masquerading as fact-checking.

But bluesky is an alternative for those who want a safe space from opposing viewpoints I guess.

So there will be at least a few Phoenix customers.

Be interesting to see if it gains traction.

2 Likes · 2 Dislikes

Wesley Hilliard 5 Years · 416 comments

About 2 weeks ago

9secondkox2 said:

I guess this ok for Bluesky users. Who are dissatisfied with the BS UX.

BS is at around 1% of the daily active users of X, so it may not be that profitable for the developer - especially compared to the days they were able to gather Twitter customers.
X is a massivre and much better platform and much less of an echo chamber, so it’s no wonder it is hitting a resurgence now thst its run efficiently. Community notes is a great misinformation killer as well - so much so that Facebook is copying it. Avoids some of the centralized falsehoods masquerading as fact-checking.

But bluesky is an alternative for those who want a safe space from opposing viewpoints I guess.

So there will be at least a few Phoenix customers.

Be interesting to see if it gains traction.

Several issues here:

- X has lost about 100 million daily active users since the X takeover. It's somewhere north of 200 million active accounts.
- Bluesky is at about 12% the size of X, growing at about 10x over the past year from the X exodus.
- Bluesky continues to see a large influx of users. The platform is about to extend how long videos can be, and more clients on the ATProtocol will attract more users from other platforms that aren't X.
- 100 million active users is possible on Bluesky in the next year or so if growth continues.
- Elon Musk says X is barely breaking even and continues to struggle to make money.
- Community notes help promote misinformation and control narratives by ensuring the right-wing majority in the platform always "correct" viewpoints they disagree with
- Musk says he is fixing Community Notes to ensure it doesn't correct him on his posts
- Community Notes are such a poor concept that misinformation has skyrocketed on Facebook since it adopted them in place of true fact checking
- The concept of an echo chamber used to mean something, but it has lost meaning as extremists use it to define anywhere extremist ideology isn't allowed to exist. Bluesky is filled with different viewpoints, it just doesn't have Nazi or right-wing extremist, anti-science viewpoints.

Feel free to use X. But don't share such blatantly incorrect information on it.

9 Likes · 0 Dislikes

kiltedgreen 17 Years · 648 comments

About 2 weeks ago

9secondkox2 said:

I guess this ok for Bluesky users. Who are dissatisfied with the BS UX.

BS is at around 1% of the daily active users of X, so it may not be that profitable for the developer - especially compared to the days they were able to gather Twitter customers.
X is a massivre and much better platform and much less of an echo chamber, so it’s no wonder it is hitting a resurgence now thst its run efficiently. Community notes is a great misinformation killer as well - so much so that Facebook is copying it. Avoids some of the centralized falsehoods masquerading as fact-checking.

But bluesky is an alternative for those who want a safe space from opposing viewpoints I guess.

So there will be at least a few Phoenix customers.

Be interesting to see if it gains traction.

And there is the small point that X is owned and controlled by a Nazi, which a lot of people, including me are disgusted with. I closed all three of my accounts as a result. I’m on BlueSky now.

1 Like · 0 Dislikes

godofbiscuitssf 3 Years · 154 comments

About 2 weeks ago

9secondkox2 said:

I guess this ok for Bluesky users. Who are dissatisfied with the BS UX.

X is a massivre and much better platform and much less of an echo chamber, so it’s no wonder it is hitting a resurgence now thst its run efficiently. Community notes is a great misinformation killer as well - so much so that Facebook is copying it. Avoids some of the centralized falsehoods masquerading as fact-checking.

"Now that it's run efficiently"?

Just, wow. You're bringing Truth. to Social.

4 Likes · 0 Dislikes

sconosciuto 5 Years · 353 comments

About 2 weeks ago

godofbiscuitssf said:

9secondkox2 said:

I guess this ok for Bluesky users. Who are dissatisfied with the BS UX.

X is a massivre and much better platform and much less of an echo chamber, so it’s no wonder it is hitting a resurgence now thst its run efficiently. Community notes is a great misinformation killer as well - so much so that Facebook is copying it. Avoids some of the centralized falsehoods masquerading as fact-checking.

"Now that it's run efficiently"?

Just, wow. You're bringing Truth. to Social.

SSDD, I put that clown on "Ignore" long ago