Bluesky rolled out group chats on June 11, 2026, enabling up to 50 participants to communicate privately within the platform [1]. Group chat creators can manage permissions and generate invite links that embed in posts for easy sharing [1]. Participants control who can invite them, with default limits set to people they follow [1]. However, sharing media in chats is not yet available, pending additional moderation and safety features [1].
Alongside group chats, Bluesky plans to launch Reddit-style communities in 2026. These are smaller spaces dedicated to specific topics where users can create or join interest groups [2]. Communities will have custom handles as URLs, such as community-name.bsky.social, and unique landing pages [2]. Community owners can add apps or tools on their homepages through Bluesky’s AT protocol [2]. Posts from communities will appear automatically in users’ Discover feeds or possibly a dedicated feed under consideration [2].
Alex Benzer, Bluesky’s product head, described a strategic shift from a single large social space to focused smaller communities where people can "go deeper and hang out with people who care about the same stuff" [1]. He confirmed that "communities are coming to Bluesky this year" [2].
Bluesky currently has about 44.8 million registered users, significantly smaller than X’s 600 million monthly active users [1]. Group chats support a maximum of 50 members at launch, compared to X’s group chats that can hold up to 1,000 members [1].
Bluesky first added messaging features in 2024, integrating third-party encrypted chat through Germ [1]. Competitor Threads launched its own communities feature in late 2025, offering similar interest-based discussion spaces [2].
Bluesky plans to launch the communities feature later in 2026, following the release of group chats in June [2].
