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Surf , thenew app from Flipboard for surf the open societal World Wide Web , is expound its support for Bluesky ’s societal electronic connection . On Monday , the company denote a newfangled variation of its beta software system ( dubbed “ Blue Wave ” ) which appropriate exploiter to lumber into the app using their Bluesky credential and then see all their Bluesky run in Surf , including their follow feed , discover provender , and any of the custom feeds they ’ve immobilise in the Bluesky app .
The new integration will also allow substance abuser to access other Bluesky sources when build their own customs feed — like Bluesky ’s Starter Packs , which are list of recommend followers that mass make to help young users find connections . Other Bluesky source , like Lists and Custom Feeds , are also usable as generator .
With the addition , Surf becomes an option to using the Bluesky app itself , as you ’re capable to interact with Wiley Post from Bluesky ’s connection by liking , replying to , and reposting them , while ilk and replies from users on Bluesky ’s app also display in Surf .
explain Flipboard CEO Mike McCue , Surf gives you “ seamless memory access ” to anyone post on Bluesky , Mastodon or Threads .
“ It ’s the social web come up to life and unifying the social World Wide Web , ” he says .
Plus , he sees apps like Surf as a good alternative to centralised societal medium , which is becoming filled with AI - sire content .
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Another new beta feature is a setup mavin that will direct you through the physical process of creating your own custom home feed in Surf — something the companionship aims to lend to other usance provender creation tool further down the road .
Here , you may design your own world-wide timeline of sorts , by combining provender from Mastodon and Bluesky , including your follow feeds or other custom feed , like Bluesky ’s “ pop with supporter ” or “ Discover . ”
The setup necromancer will also lease you percolate out content you do n’t desire to see in these feeds , like politics . There are even toggle switch switches to hide posts about Donald Trump or Elon Musk , if you ’d favor a more escapist feed .
“ A caboodle of people I ’ve personally spoken with are like … I use Bluesky to get off from the news . And I do n’t require to interpret about Elon . I do n’t want to hear any political science , ” McCue explains .
Where Surf already shines is its ability to help you build your own topical provender that compound posts from across open social networks and other open protocols like RSS . The latter allows you to add reference like newsworthiness websites , blogs , podcasts , and YouTube channels to your custom feeds .
For good example , one of McCue ’s feed , “ Tech Builders and Thinkers , ” include person whose account are on Mastodon , Bluesky , and YouTube .
The idea is to follow the people and the topics you ’re interested in , without confine yourself to a individual chopine .
For now , all provender are public by default , allowing substance abuser to follow feeds that others have built . In time , however , McCue read your feeds will be private so you may pick and choose which ones you need to portion out more broadly .
you could also pull off the designing and layout of the feeds you work up , typeset their cover image and background color , as well as pick which tab key is their nonpayment .
you’re able to have feeds that calculate more like a Twitter / X timeline by setting them to the “ Discuss ” aspect , or if you ’d rather have them focused on images , audio , videos , or article , you’re able to choose other prospect , like “ appear , ” “ Listen , ” “ observe , ” or “ Read , ” respectively .
Today , a issue ofdevelopers are building TikTok - likeorInstagram - like apps for Bluesky , which change how you view Bluesky ’s content by focus on a special type of media . With Surf , you could get the same results without the need for a freestanding app and without limit yourself to only Bluesky content .
The Surf Blue Wave beta update was first certify at the SXSW conference in Austin , Texas , and will undulate out to existing testers . The companionship will also be let in a new wafture of beta quizzer with this waiver . Surf will after exit Apple ’s TestFlight testing platform so the app can give beyond the limit of 10,000 testers that Apple imposes .
The caller is also work on bringing the currently iOS - only Surf app to the web .
