An unscientific, incomplete and completely biased comparison of Threads and BlueSky

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Time for an end-of-year comparison of what I like and dislike about both Threads and BlueSky, from the perspective of someone wanting to use them both mainly for photography. 


I’ve been on Threads for just over a year. I got an invite code for BlueSky about 18 months ago, but didn’t really do anything with it until about 6 months ago (it’s hard to tell at the moment just how long I’ve been posting on BlueSky, since they’re currently glitching and only displaying the last month or so of my posts).


I’m not super active on either platform, although that may change. I want both of them to succeed, and there are definitely things I like and dislike about both. So without further ado, I’ll start with what I like about both.


Threads positives:

  • I love the carousel display of photos, allowing them to be displayed at larger size when you want to have more than one photo in a single post (although I think the “pinch to display a panorama is a silly gimmick that only works on phones, not laptops or iPads, or I assume other tablets). 
  • The carousel display of photos shows a level of respect for photography that Instagram has never shown (even though IG was ostensibly started as a photo sharing app).
  • The ability to edit posts within a 5 minute window. This is long enough to catch most typos, without allowing unlimited post-fact edits.
  • Limiting to one tag per post, along with a higher 500 character word count allows photographers to tell a story associated with photos they post. I think this is a major reason I get a better vibe of community on Threads

BlueSky positives:

  • Very easy customization of feeds, allowing me to separate different topics from each other. If Threads has a way of doing this, I haven’t found it.
  • Limited reliance on algorithms feeding me stuff they think I’m interested in, but really aren’t.
  • More than one hashtag allowed per post, but for the love of god please limit their use (I’m looking specifically at fellow photographers and artists)
  • Letting me use my custom domain name as my username on BlueSky (@davemccaskill.art). Yea, that’s a small vanity thing, but it’s a nice touch.
  • The option of viewing adult content, with what seems to be pretty good filtering options for whether or not I choose to see it (I’m not talking about p0rn, that’s a separate topic)
  • A stated policy of not mining user data for training AI models or targeted advertising

Threads negatives:

  • Algorithm driven content being fed to me, along with what is likely all the types of data mining that Meta is (in)famous for
  • Limited options for setting up custom feeds so that I can keep photography content separate from other stuff
  • P0rn bots following me. I report and block them regularly. I’ve yet to have a single account like that follow me on BlueSky. I’m not sure why the two platforms are so different in that regard. 
  • Requiring an Instagram account to set up an account on Threads (like WTF?)

BlueSky negatives:

  • Growing pains leading to glitchy behavior (my account currently shows only the last 15 out of about 60 posts that I’ve made). Still waiting to hear back from their support email…
  • Posting multiple photos with a single post is sub-par, with them being converted to small thumbnails instead of the carousel type of display that Threads uses. For me this is a huge negative.
  • The smaller character count limit (300 vs. 500 on Threads), along with the use of multiple tags. This is more of a behavioral issue with many, if not most photographers on BlueSky. They use so damn many hashtags with their posts that they leave no room for more than a short description of their photo. I want to read a short story associated with a photo, not a bunch of hashtags that take up 90% of the post.
  • Without telling a story about your photo, there’s doesn’t seem to have been much of a community developing around photography on BlueSky.
  • No editing option for posts (dear autocorrect, it’s never “duck”)


Although there are lots of things I like about both, with very little overlap between them, there are also things I don’t like about both, again with little overlap.


Anyway, that’s it for now. I like both platforms, and dislike both. At this point they are my two main social media outlets. I’m on Instagram, but very rarely use it (I’ve never understood its supposed appeal for photography). I’m also on Facebook, but I’ve been on there forever and don’t even want to start on my opinions of that platform. And I’m not on TikTok at all.


Happy holidays and Happy New Year to everyone who has read this far. May 2025 be better than 2024 for you in whatever ways you need.


Peace ✌🏼