Will Bluesky make private community spaces available to users by the end of 2026?

Resolution criteria

Resolves Yes if, by 31 December 2026 at 23:59 UTC, Bluesky has made a feature available through at least one official Bluesky client that allows ordinary users to create or join persistent community spaces whose posts are visible only to members or approved participants. Otherwise, resolves No.

Background

Bluesky’s protocol team has published Proposal 0016: Permissioned Data, which defines access-controlled spaces supporting use cases including private forums, communities, group chats, private posts, and gated content. Bluesky is developing a communities feature alongside this protocol work. The proposal is not yet a final specification and its details may change. Proposal: https://github.com/bluesky-social/proposals/tree/main/0016-permissioned-data

Fine print

A generally available release or open public beta counts. Direct messages, group chats, private lists, reply or quote-post restrictions, public custom feeds, features available only through third-party AT Protocol applications, source code, prototypes, announcements, roadmap commitments, and internal or invitation-only testing restricted to users selected by Bluesky do not count.

Forecasts (1 person)

• @piotr.id 14 Jul 2026, 07:33 UTC

  90%

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