The platform now counts more than 40 million users worldwide.

The social network Bluesky has made its Live Now feature available to all users with the release of update v1.114. The feature allows streamers to add a “Live Now” badge to their profile avatar, linking directly to an active Twitch broadcast. 

Until now, Live Now had been tested with a limited number of accounts.

At launch, Live Now supports only Twitch, though Bluesky says integration with other streaming platforms may follow. The company describes the feature as part of its broader third-party integration strategy.

The update also introduces cashtags—tags prefixed with a dollar sign ($) used to reference publicly traded companies. For example, $AAPL refers to Apple, $GOOG to Google, and $MSFT to Microsoft.

Cashtags function similarly to hashtags, allowing users to click or search them to view related posts.

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The feature was previously popular on Twitter before changes to the platform’s policies.

Following controversies at X (formerly Twitter) over deepfakes and AI misuse, Bluesky saw a noticeable increase in new installs, with iOS downloads reportedly up by around 49% in the U.S. in early January. Daily install numbers jumped from 19,500 to about 29,000 in a week. 

Earlier in 2025, Bluesky reached several user-count milestones: passing roughly 25 million users by year-end, and later 40 million users by November 2025 worldwide. This installation surge suggests shifting user interest toward alternative platforms. 

Independent academic studies have emerged using Bluesky data, including research on personalized feeds for academic content and predictions of user behavior patterns — signifying growing interest from developers and scientists in building on its decentralized architecture.