Bounce launches a service for transferring accounts between Bluesky and Mastodon

Bounce, a brand new expertise that provides a crucial element to the open social net, launches to the general public on Monday. The cross-protocol migration device gives a service that permits customers of open social networks like Bluesky and Mastodon to maneuver their comply with graphs between their accounts, regardless that the networks depend on totally different underlying protocols.

At present, Mastodon customers sad with the service can choose to transfer their account to a special Mastodon server, whereas Bluesky is growing expertise that permits customers emigrate their account to a brand new PDS (Bluesky’s time period for “private information server”) on its community. Nonetheless, Mastodon runs on the ActivityPub Protocol and Bluesky on the AT Protocol, which has restricted the flexibility emigrate accounts throughout the 2 platforms till now.

To work, Bounce makes use of expertise first developed for Bridgy Fed, a device that connects Mastodon and Bluesky by making customers’ profiles on one service seen on the opposite.

To maneuver accounts, Bounce first strikes a consumer’s Bluesky account to a bridged account that straddles the 2 networks, then to the consumer’s Mastodon account. This migration additionally helps Pixelfed, an Instagram-like social app that additionally runs on ActivityPub, like Mastodon.

At launch, Bounce can migrate customers from Bluesky to Mastodon or Pixelfed, however not the opposite method round. That’s as a result of Bluesky’s infrastructure at the moment solely permits customers to maneuver off their servers, however doesn’t permit migrations again. When that adjustments, Bounce will launch migration in the wrong way, too.

As well as, early adopters ought to be conscious that after they transfer their account off of Bluesky, they gained’t be capable to use their Bluesky credentials to log into the app once more or different AT Protocol-based companies once more.

Developed by a nonprofit known as A New Social, which can be the maker of Bridgy Fed, Bounce’s launch is especially well timed for Bluesky customers in Mississippi. On Friday, Bluesky introduced that it will block its service within the state reasonably than adjust to a brand new age assurance legislation that it considers overly invasive from a privateness standpoint and that might require too many assets for Bluesky’s small workforce to handle. This has left Bluesky customers within the state with out entry to the social community, highlighting the necessity for instruments that might permit customers to take their accounts elsewhere.

Bounce’s beta is out there beginning Monday and is geared toward early adopters and open net lovers who’re prepared to strive the service and supply suggestions. Whereas the service is open to the general public, customers ought to familiarize themselves with the migration course of earlier than making the dedication to maneuver their accounts, provided that it’s not but attainable to maneuver again to Bluesky after they go away.