Bluesky launches video custom feeds for TikTok-style vertical videos in its mobile app, saying “we had to get in on the video action, too”
It is the product shipping time for all social networks with TikTok's services in the restoration phase, and the app still unavailable in the App Store and the Play Store.
Context & Ripple Effects
Bluesky’s move arrives as vertical video has become a standard discovery surface rather than a format confined to video-first apps. On the same day, X introduced a dedicated short-video tab, while Reddit had previously added a TikTok-like video feed to its iOS app.
The distinguishing product choice is the use of custom feeds: Bluesky is applying its feed model to video, making vertical clips another way users can navigate the network rather than a single centrally defined destination.
First-order effects
- Bluesky users gain mobile video feeds designed for vertical, swipeable viewing, giving creators a clearer format for publishing and finding short-form video on the service.
- The launch extends Bluesky’s custom-feed proposition into a content format where TikTok-style consumption has become familiar to users.
Second-order effects
- Bluesky’s feed curators and creators have an incentive to build video-specific communities, potentially increasing competition for attention between text-led and video-led feeds inside the app.
- The feature narrows a product gap with platforms that have added dedicated vertical-video surfaces, including X’s new bottom-bar video tab.
Third-order effects
- If custom video feeds gain use, social discovery may become more modular: users could choose among distinct video communities and ranking approaches rather than relying only on one platform-wide feed.
- The broader pattern is making vertical video a baseline interface for discovery across social, audio, and entertainment apps, as illustrated by Spotify’s earlier Discover feed test.
The trend: Vertical video is becoming a default discovery layer across consumer apps, with platforms differentiating through how feeds are organized and personalized rather than through the format itself.