A recent update to Bluesky introduces a long-requested feature of the platform: Direct Messages! According to the developers, this implementation is pretty limited: messages are not end-to-end encrypted, don’t support images, and don’t currently federate from one personal data server to another.

DMs on Bluesky will not be "end-to-end encrypted" until we are able to do some more protocol work. We have very careful access controls within our systems. If you're extremely privacy conscious, I'd recommend using Bluesky DMs to share your Signal accounts!

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— Paul “Frazee” 🦋 (@pfrazee.com) May 22, 2024 at 1:29 PM

The team’s current roadmap states plans to introduce group messaging, encryption, media support, and safety improvements. One interesting thing to note is that this version of Direct Messages is not formally part of the AT Protocol, but a future version will be.

Messaging comes with a couple of basic privacy options to determine who can message you: Everyone, People You Follow, and Nobody.

It’s also worth mentioning that there’s ongoing work in the ActivityPub ecosystem to implement encrypted private messages, and Nostr supports encrypted private messages in NIP-17. Having parity across all three networks may introduce the possibility of sending encrypted messages across networks through a bridge.

Bluesky’s Direct Messages are available in the latest client update for Web, Android, and iOS.

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