Bluesky Expands Attie AI Tool to Let Users Build Social Apps and Previews Payments

Attie initially launched earlier this year as a way to use AI to build custom social feeds, according to TechCrunch and The Verge. The new capabilities let creators type a prompt to make small social apps, such as games, polls, dashboards, and websites, which can then be shared with others. The Verge reported that a simple poll about Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue took a few minutes to generate. Attie's website highlighted examples including a Flappy Bird clone called Flappy Butterfly, a drum machine, a quiz, and an idle clicker about a celery man, each with a custom link on the attie.site domain and attribution at the bottom.

Bluesky CEO Toni Schneider announced the expansion in an interview at Disrupt. 'We're adding a feature to our Attie product that allows you to build sites and social experiences again for a group of people. So think of it as... social vibe coding or vibe coding for your community,' he said. Schneider said vibe coding today is a single-user, solo experience, and he wants to build together or build for a group. A former CEO of Automattic and a partner at True Ventures, Schneider had led Bluesky on an interim basis after former CEO Jay Graber stepped down in March to become chief innovation officer. TechCrunch reported that he is now taking charge as the company enters the AI era.

The user-created games, sites, and other experiences live on the same AT Protocol (atproto) that powers Bluesky and other decentralized social apps in the Atmosphere. Creators are connected to their atproto identity, and Attie will suggest things users might want to make based on their public Bluesky profiles. Users can bring their own AI model or use open-weight options. Bluesky COO Rose Wang said the resulting sites and games can tap into Bluesky's wider audience. 'Everybody is building... But the big question is: who's using the thing you're building, because we haven't solved that problem with distribution,' she said. 'This is what makes Attie so interesting is that it comes with the Bluesky distribution, so it doesn't stand alone.'

TechCrunch reported that Bluesky has 47 million registered users, though it has seen a decline in engagement as some users who tested it later returned to X. Attie ties into Bluesky's plans to reinvigorate activity by focusing on developers and communities in the months ahead. The protocol's forthcoming support for private data, which Schneider said has been the biggest request from developers, is now in alpha testing with plans for a rollout by the end of the year. 'There should be lots and lots of these fun, small social experiences for your friends,' Schneider said. 'We don't all have to go communicate with the entire world all the time.'

At Disrupt, Schneider and Wang also outlined Bluesky's payments plans. Schneider said people are already selling things and fundraising successfully on the network. 'We want to make that easier, and the way we're going to do this is if you see something on the network that you like and support, you can support that monetarily, and we want to do it in a way that works for Bluesky and for all the other apps out there as well, so that it works across the entire network,' he said. Schneider added that he was surprised by the reaction to his appointment, with some users joking that it marked the beginning of the end for the platform. He said users can leave Bluesky if the company introduces features or changes they dislike, a reality that keeps the leadership team accountable as it prepares to introduce monetization in the coming months.

Wang argued that advertising is not the only viable business model for a social network. She pointed to Bluesky's status as a Public Benefit Corporation, which she said puts the company's mission at the center of its business strategy. 'Yes, we need to make money, but because of our infrastructure, we cannot lock people in,' Wang said. 'And so the thing that really matters for us is the people who are creating value on the networks these days are the ones who are getting the value that is coming in or the money that's coming in. And I kind of think of it as like feudal society where we're working for a few landlords and they dictate everything, and then we have to pay up our dues as tariffs.' Bluesky aims to give users ownership of their digital identities and control over their networks while creating a more open internet where value and revenue can flow directly to the people who generate them. 'First, we'll start with payments, but I think it's about disrupting the actual infrastructure layer, which is what we're doing, and not just building another app,' Wang said.

Editor's Summary Bluesky used TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 to expand its AI-powered Attie tool, letting users build shareable websites, games, polls, and other social experiences tied to the AT Protocol. The company also said it will introduce payments in the coming months and is testing private data support as it seeks non-advertising revenue and more activity across its network. Bluesky has 47 million registered users and faces engagement challenges as it bets on developer and community tools.