In a time when social media can feel like the Wild West, Bluesky is stepping up with a feature many users have been missing—verified accounts with the good ol’ blue check mark.
It’s a small icon, but it sends a big message: “Yes, this person is who they say they are.”
This move from Bluesky—originally a side project launched by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey—is all about making the internet a bit more trustworthy again.
Why Bluesky Is Bringing Back Verification
The team behind Bluesky announced in a recent blog post that they’re rolling out verified blue checks for accounts that can prove they are authentic and notable.
Their goal? To build trust and help people avoid falling for fake profiles or impersonators.
“Trust is everything,” they wrote, and honestly, in this age of misinformation, they’re not wrong.
A Swipe at How X Handles Verification
This feature isn’t exactly new—it was once a core part of Twitter, before Elon Musk took the reins and turned verification into a paid feature under the platform now known as X.
Musk eliminated identity-based verification in favor of a subscription model, making blue checks available to anyone who shelled out for X Premium, whether they were legit or not.
Bluesky, on the other hand, wants to flip that model back to what it used to be: something that actually means something.
The Bigger Vision: A Safer, More Authentic Social Experience
The folks at Bluesky aren’t just stopping at blue checks.
They’ve been on a mission to build a platform where people can connect, have real conversations, and feel safe doing it.
In fact, more than 270,000 accounts are already using a kind of informal verification by connecting their usernames to their own websites.
Now, Bluesky plans to gradually expand this with official verification for “trusted verifiers,” eventually opening up requests so more users can get that little blue badge.
A Platform with Roots in Twitter’s Past
Bluesky’s story goes back to 2019, when Jack Dorsey, while still at Twitter, gathered a small team of engineers to create a decentralized alternative.
He believed that a top-down approach to moderation wouldn’t solve the internet’s biggest issues and that giving users more control was the better way forward.
Although it took a few years to fully launch—2023, to be exact—the timing felt right.
Twitter had just changed hands, misinformation was spreading fast, and many users were looking for a new space to engage with the world online.
Growing Fast and Gaining Momentum
As of early 2025, Bluesky has already surpassed 30 million users.
And according to COO Rose Wang, that growth is just the beginning.
“We really see this as our coming-out year,” she said in an interview with AFP.
Her vision for Bluesky is a place where people can stay informed, share ideas, laugh a little, and make new friends—all without the chaos that plagues other platforms.
Are You on Bluesky Yet?
If you’ve joined Bluesky, you’re not alone. And if you haven’t, you might want to check it out—especially if you’re looking for a more balanced and respectful space online.