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Video discovery is becoming the battleground
TikTok’s uncertainty in the U.S. has created an opening that social platforms have been eager to test. The opportunity is not simply to inherit people looking for somewhere else to post short clips. It is to capture the habit TikTok helped normalize: opening an app with no particular creator or subject in mind, then being pulled into a fast-moving vertical video feed.
Bluesky and X have both moved toward that model with new video discovery features. Their approaches are notably different. Bluesky is leaning into user control and community-built feeds, while X is placing a dedicated, personalized video stream directly in its main navigation. Both are trying to make video feel less like an occasional post format and more like a destination inside the app.
That distinction matters. TikTok’s appeal has long rested on discovery: a feed that can surface entertainment, commentary, news, fandom, and niche interests without asking users to build a following list first. Rivals can copy the mechanics of vertical scrolling, but the harder task is creating a reason for viewers and creators to return. A new tab is easy to announce; a living culture around it is much harder to establish.
Bluesky’s bet is on choice rather than one central feed
Bluesky Introduces Customizable Video Feeds
Bluesky announced customizable feeds for videos that let users swipe through vertical video timelines. Rather than presenting a single all-purpose video product, Bluesky is tying discovery to the feature that has helped define its wider experience: custom feeds. Users can create targeted feeds around specific hashtags, including #BookSky, which mirrors TikTok’s popular #BookTok community. They can also pin preferred feeds for quick access.
That is a meaningful difference in philosophy. On major social networks, video recommendation is typically treated as a centralized product decision: the platform chooses what its main feed should prioritize, and users react to it. Bluesky’s custom-feed model gives people a more direct way to decide what kind of video environment they want to enter. A reader looking for book discussion may prefer a feed built around #BookSky; another user may want an entirely different subject or community.
The upside is obvious. Niche communities often drive the most durable participation on social platforms because members know what they are there for. Custom feeds can make discovery feel more intentional, and pinned feeds reduce the friction of returning to a specific interest. The trade-off is that a user may need to make more choices before the experience becomes compelling. TikTok’s strength is the opposite: it asks for very little direction and tries to turn that absence of direction into a personalized stream.
A new video feed in Bluesky’s search tab provides trending videos, with curated content delivered through custom feeds. This gives Bluesky a more obvious entry point for people who do not yet know which feed to seek out. It also helps connect the platform’s existing discovery tools to video, rather than treating video as a separate product bolted onto a text-first network.
Bluesky credited developers working on its decentralized AT Protocol for early-stage TikTok alternatives including Tik.Blue and Skylight.Social. That detail points to a broader possibility in Bluesky’s model. If developers can build alternative video experiences around the same protocol, video discovery may not be limited to one official interface or one ranking system. That is an appealing proposition for users wary of having every cultural trend filtered through a single platform’s priorities. It could also make the experience feel fragmented if audiences, creators, and attention disperse across too many places.
X makes video a front-door feature
X Rolls Out a Dedicated Video Tab
On Sunday, X introduced a “Video Tab” in its app for U.S. users. Marked by a circular play button in the bottom navigation bar, the feature offers a personalized feed of video recommendations. Its placement is important. Bottom navigation is where an app signals its core activities, and putting video there says X wants video viewing to be a routine behavior rather than something users encounter only while scrolling through posts.
The feed spans sports, entertainment, and news, and X emphasized the real-time nature of its recommendations. That positioning plays to a familiar strength of the platform: conversation around unfolding events. A video product built around real-time interest could feel distinct from a feed centered mainly on entertainment clips. Sports highlights, breaking news footage, reactions, and live cultural moments all fit naturally with a network where users already gather to discuss what is happening now.
Still, “real-time” can be both an advantage and a constraint. It is useful when there is a major event people want to follow, but it does not automatically create the endless variety that makes a short-video feed satisfying during quieter moments. X will need its recommendations to work across the broad categories it highlights, not only when news or sports gives the feed an obvious burst of energy.
The comparison with Bluesky is instructive. X is taking a direct product route: a prominent tab and a personalized video feed. Bluesky is offering vertical video timelines but allowing communities and users to shape the paths into them. Neither approach guarantees that creators will shift their attention, but each reflects the platform it belongs to. X is trying to concentrate attention in one clear destination; Bluesky is trying to turn decentralized customization into an advantage.
A wider race for the tools and audiences around short video
Rising Competition in Video Platforms
As TikTok regains its footing in the U.S., rivals are still moving quickly to capitalize on its vulnerabilities. That may sound contradictory, but it describes the present moment accurately: uncertainty can affect creator planning and user behavior even when a platform remains central to online culture. Competitors do not need TikTok to disappear to benefit. They only need enough people to consider building an audience, consuming video, or experimenting with new formats elsewhere.
Instagram has also entered the contest by launching a competitor to ByteDance’s CapCut, intensifying competition not just in video feeds but in editing and sharing. This is a reminder that the fight is larger than the final screen where viewers watch clips. Creators need tools to make video, places to publish it, and a realistic chance of reaching an audience. The platform that offers only one piece of that chain may struggle to pull activity away from an established habit.
For Bluesky and X, the immediate goal is likely less about declaring themselves TikTok replacements than about making their own networks more useful when video is the preferred way to communicate. Vertical video has become a default language for many online communities. A platform that lacks credible discovery tools risks becoming a place where clips are posted but not meaningfully found.
Bluesky and X are positioning themselves as contenders in that space through vertical video discovery and personalization, but their success will depend on whether those features produce repeat behavior. Bluesky’s custom feeds could make video discovery feel more community-led. X’s Video Tab could make its real-time conversation network more visually immediate. The common aim is clear: attract users who may be looking beyond TikTok without assuming they will settle for a weaker imitation.
The result is a more competitive digital video landscape, with platforms testing different answers to the same question: should short-form video be governed by one powerful recommendation feed, or should users have greater say over how they find it?
Related reading
Check Out Our Article of Bluesky’s Rapid Growth and the Social Media Race Published on November 16, 2024 SquaredTech
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