Bluesky has introduced a new friend-finding feature designed to match users with people they know while limiting how contact data is accessed and used, according to an announcement the company made on Wednesday. The feature relies on opt-in contact matching from a user’s phone address book and only surfaces matches when both people have chosen to participate.
Why Bluesky Built A Different Contact Matching System
The company said contact importing has historically been one of the most effective ways for social networks to help users find people they already know, but also one of the most problematic. In its announcement, Bluesky said phone numbers have previously been leaked, brute-forced, sold to spammers, or reused by platforms for purposes users did not expect, even when encryption was involved. Because of those risks, the company said it chose to design a different technical approach aimed at reducing exposure of personal data.
Past Use Of Contact Matching As A Growth Tool
Bluesky also addressed how contact matching has been used by other social platforms as a lead-generation mechanism. In those systems, apps often recommend inviting contacts who are not yet users, triggering automated text messages. The company noted that recipients frequently view these messages as spam. While this tactic has helped apps spread quickly, Bluesky said it does not guarantee long-term user retention.
Manual Invites And Phone Number Verification
Under the new system, Bluesky said it will not send automated invitations to contacts, even when users upload their address books. Instead, users can choose to send an invite manually to a specific friend. These invitations are personal messages initiated by the user. Recipients cannot opt out of receiving such invites.
To use the Find Friends feature, users must first verify their phone number. This involves entering a six-digit code sent via SMS before any contacts are uploaded. Bluesky said this step is meant to prevent malicious actors from uploading random phone numbers in order to probe whether those numbers are associated with Bluesky accounts.
How Matching Works And User Control
Once contacts are uploaded, matches are shown only when both users have saved each other’s phone numbers in their respective address books and have opted in to the feature. Bluesky cautioned early adopters that results may appear gradually. As more users upload contacts, additional matches may become visible over time.
The company emphasized that participation is optional. Users who prefer not to be discoverable by coworkers or people they know offline can simply choose not to enable the feature.
Data Storage And Security Design
Bluesky said uploaded contact information is stored as hashed pairs, created by combining the user’s phone number with each contact’s number. According to the company, this structure makes the data more difficult to reverse engineer. The encryption keys used to protect this information are tied to a hardware key that is stored separately from the main Bluesky database.
Users who later decide they no longer want their contact data on the platform can delete their uploaded contacts and opt out of the feature. Bluesky added that technical details of the system were shared with the security community in advance through a published request for comments document, allowing external experts to review the design before launch.
Availability And Rollout Regions
The Find Friends feature is now rolling out to users in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Featured image credits: Heute.at
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