Bluesky’s AI assistant Attie expands into an open social research tool
Quick Answer
Bluesky's AI assistant Attie has evolved into an open social research tool with a new feature called Quests, allowing users to gather information from the Bluesky network and beyond.
Quick Take
Despite a slowdown in user growth, Bluesky aims to enhance user experience and potentially monetize the service, which is currently free but may become paid in the future.
Key Points
- Attie allows users to create custom social feeds without programming.
- The new Quests feature helps users research trending topics and influential accounts.
- Bluesky's user base has grown to approximately 45.6 million registered accounts.
- The company raised $100 million in funding to support its development efforts.
- Attie is currently in beta, with users invited from a waitlist.
DeepSignal Analysis
What happened
Bluesky's AI assistant, Attie, has been updated to include a feature called Quests, which allows users to gather information from the Bluesky network and other apps using the AT Protocol. Despite a recent slowdown in user growth, the company is exploring ways to enhance user experience and monetize the service, which is currently free.
Key evidence
- Attie, launched in March, allows users to create custom social feeds and now includes Quests for open-ended research.
- Bluesky's user growth has slowed, with registered accounts increasing from 40 million last October to approximately 45.6 million.
- The company raised $100 million in funding in March, providing resources to experiment with Attie and other potential revenue-generating services.
Why it matters
The evolution of Attie into a research tool reflects Bluesky's response to user needs and market challenges. As user growth stagnates, the introduction of features like Quests could help retain and attract users by providing valuable insights. Additionally, the potential shift towards monetization raises questions about the sustainability of the platform and its alignment with user expectations.
📖 Reader Mode
~3 min readAttie, Bluesky’s AI assistant that lets you build custom social feeds without programming, is evolving into an open-ended research tool.
The company this week said it’s added a new feature to the AI assistant, called Quests, that lets users ask it for information and news spreading across the broader Bluesky social network, nicknamed the Atmosphere. This includes not only Bluesky, but any app that integrates with the underlying AT Protocol.
Bluesky’s user growth has slowed over the past eight months — the social network saw its user base double to 40 million last October, within just a year, but it now reports around 45.6 million registered accounts. So the company has been looking to develop tools and services that could allow it to grow its user base, and potentially, monetize it.
Attie, launched in March, is a separate product by Bluesky that lets users design their own algorithm, create custom feeds and, one day, possibly, vibe code their own apps. While the AI assistant is free for the time being, the company has toyed with the idea of charging for the service.
Quests adds new capabilities to Attie, allowing users to ask it open-ended questions to research what’s happening on this part of the open social web. For instance, you could ask Attie to pull information about trending topics, or help you identify the most influential accounts in a particular field or location, the company explained.
“Attie’s AI is a tool that helps you make sense of the internet, helping you fight back against the proliferation of misinformation and noise by giving you the tools to find the truth yourself,” wrote Bluesky’s chief innovation officer Jay Graber, who stepped down in March from her role as CEO of the company. (She’s since been replaced by Toni Schneider, the former founding CEO of Automattic.)
“Our bet is that tools that help people make sense of the world will prove to be more useful than those that fill it with confusion,” Graber wrote. “We want Attie to reduce the barrier to entry and expertise required to learn how to use the AT Protocol, and to put the tools for customizing your experience in the hands of anyone who wants them.”
Graber noted Attie is being redesigned to add accessibility features and a new logo, and more changes are coming in the months ahead.
For now, the new Attie experience is in beta, and users will be invited in from a waitlist over the coming weeks.
While many Bluesky users tend to dislike AI for economic, political and environmental reasons, the company has had to balance its community’s leanings with the need to generate revenue to help itself and the AT Protocol development it leads remain afloat.
In March, Bluesky said it had raised $100 million in funding in a round that closed in 2025. That gives it runway to experiment with ideas like Attie and how AI can play a role in the Atmosphere, as well as with other services, like a premium subscription or tools for power users.
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Sarah has worked as a reporter for TechCrunch since August 2011. She joined the company after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to her work as a reporter, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software.
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— Originally published at techcrunch.com
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