Surf, the new app from Flipboard for shopping the open social net, is increasing its assist for Bluesky’s social community. On Monday, the corporate introduced a brand new model of its beta software program (dubbed “Blue Wave”) which permits customers to log into the app utilizing their Bluesky credentials after which see all their Bluesky feeds in Surf, together with their following feed, uncover feed, and any of the customized feeds they’ve pinned within the Bluesky app.
The brand new integration will even enable customers to entry different Bluesky sources when constructing their very own customized feeds — like Bluesky’s Starter Packs, that are lists of beneficial followers that individuals construct to assist new customers discover connections. Different Bluesky sources, like Lists and Customized Feeds, are additionally out there as sources.
With the addition, Surf turns into an alternative choice to utilizing the Bluesky app itself, as you’re capable of work together with posts from Bluesky’s community by liking, replying to, and reposting them, whereas likes and replies from customers on Bluesky’s app additionally show in Surf.
Explains Flipboard CEO Mike McCue, Surf offers you “seamless access” to anybody posting on Bluesky, Mastodon or Threads.
“It’s the social web coming to life and unifying the social web,” he says.
Plus, he sees apps like Surf as a superb different to centralized social media, which is changing into stuffed with AI-generated content material.
“The AI overrun is just brutal,” he says. “This is why I really think RSS is so important because it gives you access to all the best YouTube content, podcasts and newsletters from real people. By being explicit about the sources that you choose, and looking at people that you trust and what sources they’ve recommended, it’s the power of human connection to help filter away all the AI slop,” McCue notes.
One other new beta characteristic is a setup wizard that may information you thru the method of making your personal customized house feed in Surf — one thing the corporate goals so as to add to different customized feed creation instruments additional down the street.
Right here, you may design your personal common timeline of types, by combining feeds from Mastodon and Bluesky, together with your following feeds or different customized feeds, like Bluesky’s “Popular with Friends” or “Discover.”
The setup wizard will even allow you to filter out content material you don’t wish to see in these feeds, like politics. There are even toggle switches to cover posts about Donald Trump or Elon Musk, for those who’d choose a extra escapist feed.
“A lot of people I’ve personally spoken with are like…I use Bluesky to get away from the news. And I don’t want to read about Elon. I don’t want to hear any politics,” McCue explains.
The place Surf already shines is its capability that will help you construct your personal topical feeds that mix posts from throughout open social networks and different open protocols like RSS. The latter means that you can add sources like information web sites, blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels to your customized feeds.
For instance, considered one of McCue’s feeds, “Tech Builders and Thinkers,” consists of people whose accounts are on Mastodon, Bluesky, and YouTube.
The thought is to comply with the folks and the subjects you’re eager about, with out limiting your self to a single platform.
For now, all feeds are public by default, permitting customers to comply with feeds that others have constructed. In time, nevertheless, McCue says your feeds shall be personal so you may choose and select which of them you wish to share extra broadly.
You can even tweak the design and structure of the feeds you construct, setting their cowl picture and background shade, in addition to selecting which tab is their default.
You’ll be able to have feeds that look extra like a Twitter/X timeline by setting them to the “Discuss” view, or for those who’d moderately have them targeted on photos, audio, movies, or articles, you may select different views, like “Look,” “Listen,” “Watch,” or “Read,” respectively.
Right now, a variety of builders are constructing TikTok-like or Instagram-like apps for Bluesky, which change the way you view Bluesky’s content material by specializing in a specific sort of media. With Surf, you may get the identical outcomes with out the necessity for a separate app and with out limiting your self to solely Bluesky content material.
The Surf Blue Wave beta replace was first demonstrated on the SXSW convention in Austin, Texas, and can roll out to current testers. The corporate will even be letting in a brand new wave of beta testers with this launch. Surf will later exit Apple’s TestFlight testing platform so the app can attain past the restrict of 10,000 testers that Apple imposes.
The corporate can be engaged on bringing the at present iOS-only Surf app to the net.
