For those looking for an alternative to Instagram, Flashes, a recently launched Bluesky-based app that seems to have all the important basic features, may be a good option. Technically, Flashes appeared on the App Store on February 24, but a series of updates released within a few days of launch made the app much easier to recommend.
If you remember Instagram before Meta turned it into a Facebook replacement, you have an idea of what Flashes is. It’s a photo and video sharing app, with some Bluesky-style nuances, like multiple custom feeds to choose from instead of Meta’s algorithmic default option.
When you first open Flashes, you’ll be prompted to sign in with your Bluesky account or create a new one to use exclusively with Flashes. If you use your existing account, the app repackages images and videos from those you currently follow into an Instagram-style feed. This setting also works in the opposite direction: Any post you post to Flashes will also appear in your regular Bluesky text feed.
The app itself has several tabs: the main tab for your feeds, a search tab where you can search for posts and see trending topics, a dedicated tab for creating new posts, a notification tab where all your Bluesky notifications are displayed, and a profile tab. Flashes has a few filters that you can apply to your photos, as well as a few custom feeds that you can use if you want, but otherwise the customization is minimal. It’s really a version of Bluesky focused on image and video processing. However, it has some annoying drawbacks. If you receive a lot of notifications from Bluesky, you will now receive them twice: once in the Bluesky app and once in Flashes. If you delete your account from one app, it will also be deleted from the other.
Creating a more customized, portable version of social media that doesn’t tie you to one platform is an important part of Bluesky’s goal with the AT protocol and what apps like Mastodon and Threads are trying to do with ActivityPub. It’s unclear if one standard will become the default, but Bluesky is gaining momentum. In November 2024, the app reached the 20 million user mark, prompting a significant expansion of moderation efforts, and in January 2025, it surpassed the 30 million user mark. The design of Flashes means that all these new Bluesky accounts are also potential Flashes users.
