Bluesky Unveils Attie: An AI-Powered App for Building Custom Social Feeds

Bluesky Steps Into AI Territory With New Standalone App

Bluesky, the decentralized social networking platform, has expanded beyond its core app with the debut of Attie — an AI-powered tool designed to help everyday users build custom social media feeds without writing a single line of code. Built on Bluesky's open AT Protocol (atproto), Attie marks the company's first standalone product venture and signals a broader ambition to democratize how people interact with social technology.

Unveiled at Atmosphere Conference

Attie made its public debut at the Atmosphere conference, where Bluesky's former CEO and current Chief Innovation Officer Jay Graber, alongside CTO Paul Frazee, introduced the app to attendees for the first time. Conference participants have been selected as the first beta testers for the platform.

Under the hood, Attie is powered by Anthropic's Claude, making it an agentic social application that can understand user preferences, respond to natural language commands, and take meaningful action within the social ecosystem.

What Exactly Does Attie Do?

At its core, Attie allows users to create highly personalized content feeds simply by typing conversational requests — much like chatting with any AI assistant. Users sign in using their Atmosphere credentials, which grants access to any app running on the atproto network, including Bluesky itself.

Because atproto is an open system that shares data across applications, Attie can quickly learn about a user's interests, conversation history, and content preferences from the moment they log in.

Users can:

• Ask Attie which posts they might enjoy or want to reshare
• Curate completely personalized content feeds
• Shape their social algorithm without any technical expertise

Looking ahead, the team plans to expand Attie's capabilities to allow users to "vibe-code" their own social apps and build tools for others within the Atmosphere ecosystem.

A Product Built for People, Not Platforms

"You control it, you shape it, without having to write code or know how to set up these feeds," said Toni Schneider, Bluesky's interim CEO and partner at backer True Ventures. "It's the beginning of just having a lot more people be able to build on top of the Atmosphere."

Schneider was emphatic that despite its AI foundation, Attie is fundamentally a human-centered product. "It is an AI product, but it's an AI product that's very people-focused. We think AI is a very powerful technology, but we want to make sure that we use it to build things that really benefit people," he explained.

Jay Graber's Vision: AI That Serves Users, Not Big Tech

Graber, who stepped back from her CEO duties to focus on innovation and product development, has been working on Attie for several months. Her transition back to building was a natural one, according to Schneider.

"She realized that there was so much more that she wanted to build, and just doing the CEO job kept her busy," Schneider told TechCrunch. "This is her happy place. She's an amazing leader and visionary, and we want her building more things."

Graber herself has been vocal about her concerns regarding how AI is being used by mainstream social platforms — primarily to maximize engagement, harvest user data, and tighten algorithmic control.

"We think AI should serve people, not platforms," Graber stated in her official announcement. "An open protocol puts this power directly in users' hands. You can use it to build your own feeds, create software that works the way you want it to, and find signal in the noise."

$100 Million in Funding Provides Long-Term Stability

Alongside the Attie announcement, Bluesky revealed it has secured $100 million in additional funding from a round that closed last year. Schneider confirmed that this gives the company more than three years of runway, providing stability for both the platform and the broader atproto ecosystem.

"It means we have three-plus years of runway, which is great. That means stability and security for the rest of the ecosystem," he said.

With 43.4 million users on the platform, Bluesky's team is now focused on tackling larger challenges ahead, including strengthening privacy controls within the protocol and identifying sustainable monetization strategies.

No Crypto Integration — Despite Investor Background

One concern among some Bluesky users has been the possibility of crypto features being introduced, given that several of the platform's investors have backgrounds in cryptocurrency. Schneider moved quickly to put those fears to rest.

"It's the kind of investors who were attracted to crypto because of its decentralization," he explained. "This is decentralized social, so it fits those who are invested to believe in the platform and the ecosystem opportunity." There are no plans to integrate crypto payments or blockchain-based features into the platform.

How Will Attie Be Monetized?

Attie is currently in private beta, and no final decisions have been made about its pricing model. Ideas under consideration include subscription plans and hosting services for communities that want to run their own instances on the protocol.

Schneider, who previously served as CEO of Automattic — the company behind WordPress.com — sees a striking parallel between the Atmosphere ecosystem and the WordPress economy.

"At the center of it is a completely open system, so anybody can participate," he said. "With WordPress, that turned into a huge ecosystem with over $10 billion a year flowing through it. This is what we're hoping for with the Atmosphere — lots of apps and services coexisting and building together."

The Road Ahead

With Attie, Bluesky is making a clear statement: the future of social media should be open, user-controlled, and genuinely powered by AI that works for individuals rather than against them. As the app moves from private beta toward a broader release, it could reshape how millions of people experience and personalize their online social lives.