Bluesky expands AI tool Attie — and would rather promote it on X

Bluesky has offered an AI tool since the spring, and it’s now supposed to do more than build feeds. The service is choosing not to promote it to its own users.

(Image: VCarter80 / Shutterstock.com)

Oct 16, 2026 at 11:44 pm CEST

2 min. read

By

Martin Holland

Bluesky has expanded its AI assistant “Attie”, which is extremely unpopular with its own users: It can now be used to program games, websites or small interactive apps through “vibe coding”. The people behind the short-form social network announced the change Thursday at a conference in San Francisco. Interestingly, Bluesky didn’t announce it on its own platform, but did on rival X. “Attie’s” account ranks second on Bluesky’s list of the most-blocked accounts. The only account users block more often belongs to U.S. Vice President JD Vance. That puts “Attie” ahead of even the White House and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Not for its own users

Bluesky introduced “Attie” in the spring. The service was originally intended for creating custom feeds. But even then, the company said users would later be able to build their own social apps with vibe coding and provide tools for others. “Attie” was meant to be an alternative to the AI strategies of major platforms, which ultimately aim to gather as much training data as possible. Bluesky’s tool, by contrast, was supposed to give users more control, the company said at the time. The people behind the service are now promoting the expanded feature set with a clone of the cult mobile game “Flappy Bird” and a social quiz. “Attie” is still in a closed beta, and there’s a waitlist.

Videos by heise

There’s likely a reason Bluesky isn’t promoting the tool to its own users: Criticism of AI is widespread on the platform, and “Attie”’s launch triggered a wave of opposition. As a result, more than 150,000 accounts blocked the associated Bluesky account. The other accounts among the 20 most-blocked are primarily those of the U.S. government led by Donald Trump. The announcement was shared instead by Bluesky’s official account on X, where, just under a year ago, Bluesky mocked the introduction of AI features in software. So it remains unclear who “Attie” is actually intended for.