This is a story about two social networks. While Elon Musk’s Twitter seems to be constantly beset by controversy, bugs and problems, a new competitor founded by the site’s former CEO Jack Dorsey has created a lot of buzz. Dorsey’s new venture, Bluesky, is taking a radically different approach to hosting content, and invitation codes for the exclusive platform sells for hundreds of dollars.

So what’s going on with Twitter, and should you try to get invited to Bluesky? Here is our guide.

What did Elon Musk do with Twitter?

Since buying Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion, Musk has radically changed how the platform works and what it means. Musk is promoting a paid subscription service called Twitter Blue to raise money for businesses, while promising other schemes, such as revenue sharing with content creators, that have yet to come to fruition.

At the same time, the reliability of the platform suffered due to a sharp reduction in the number of staff. Of nearly 8,000 employees when he took over, Twitter is now about 1000 full-time employees. Crashes are common, and content moderation is given less attention, making the social network weaker or more liberal, depending on your point of view.

Why did Musk do it?

Taken together, the changes are meant to make Twitter more financially balanced and better represent the public space open to all, which Musk believes is Twitter. “I hope this may be more of a case where the public chooses narrative over media. [the] storytelling,” Musk told the BBC in controversial interview in April. “Over time, I think if Twitter becomes the best source of truth, it will succeed. And if we are not the best source of truth, we will fail.”

Will the plans work?

Everyone agrees that this is unlikely. Twitter Blue takeover lower than expected: January data show only 0.2% of active users chose to paywhile more recent evidence suggests over half of the first subscribers have since canceled. The unusual choice spooked advertisers who left the platform en masse. And the recent hype about the verification, which resulted in some users who had not paid for Twitter Blue being presented to the world as if they had paid could leave Twitter open to lawsuits. Things are not going very well.

What happened to the mastodon? Wasn’t it supposed to replace Twitter?

Some people left for Mastodon shortly after Musk took over Twitter, although one analysis found that only 1.6% of those who said they were leaving Twitter actually did so. Mastodon’s user growth has largely stalled, while Post, another competitor, is still of comparatively niche interest.

I heard about Bluesky, what is it?

Bluesky is a new Twitter alternative launched on the Apple App Store in February. Although Bluesky founded Dorsey, Bluesky’s CEO is Jay Graber, a former cryptocurrency software engineer. At the moment, only those who have an invitation can register.

So what makes Bluesky different?

The advantage of Bluesky is authenticated transfer protocol, which is designed to decentralize control of a social network from a person or company, allowing users to self-host their profiles or move them between social media platforms. The Bluesky team hopes that over time you will be able to choose a personalized algorithm that determines the content you see.

“The ultimate goal is to make a better product, a better network, and a better Internet,” says Paul Frazi, one of the developers working on Bluesky. “We’ve created a protocol to protect people and deliver the best results, and we’re building everything with the technology in mind.”

Will it succeed?

This is the million dollar question. In a short span of time, Bluesky has gained 50,000 users. But can this growth continue? “The problem with any successor is that a product like Twitter is only as strong as the network effect it is capable of,” says Bruce Daisley, a former Twitter executive who left before Musk took over. “Now Bluesky is a bizarre mix [dedicated] Twitter users are both calm and pleasant for it. But the reason people left Mastodon or the Post is because there’s no one there.”