Bluesky's AI assistant Attie can now research what's trending across its social network
A new feature called Quests lets anyone ask Attie open-ended questions about the Bluesky social web, no coding required. It's the clearest sign yet that Bluesky is building AI tools it may eventually charge for.
Key points
- Bluesky launched Quests, a new feature inside its AI assistant Attie, during the week of publication.
- Attie launched in March 2025 and is currently free, but Bluesky has discussed charging for it in the future.
- Bluesky had roughly 45.6 million registered accounts at the time of writing, up from 40 million in October 2024.
- Bluesky raised $100 million in funding in a round that closed in 2025.
- The new Quests experience is in beta and users must join a waitlist.
Bluesky's AI assistant, called Attie, just got a significant new trick. The social network added a feature named Quests this week, letting ordinary users ask it open-ended questions about what is happening across the Bluesky network and any connected apps.
What can Attie actually do now?
Attie can now dig through the wider Bluesky social web and report back on what it finds. Ask it which topics are trending, or who the most influential voices are in, say, nursing or local Chicago politics, and it will pull that information together for you.
The tool searches not just Bluesky itself but anything built on the AT Protocol, the open technical standard that Bluesky developed so other social apps can connect to the same shared network. Think of AT Protocol as the plumbing that lets different social apps talk to each other, the way email works across different providers.
Attie launched in March 2025. Its original purpose was letting people design their own social feed without writing any code, essentially telling the AI what kind of posts you want to see and having it build the filter for you. Quests broadens that into something closer to a research assistant.
Why is Bluesky building this?
Growth has slowed. Bluesky's registered user count hit 40 million in October 2024, roughly doubling in a year. Today that number sits at around 45.6 million, a much smaller jump over eight months.
That plateau pushed the company to look for new services that could attract users and, eventually, bring in money. Attie is currently free, but as TechCrunch AI first reported, Bluesky has already floated the idea of making it a paid product.
The company is not short of time to figure this out. A $100 million funding round that closed in 2025 gives it breathing room to experiment.
Jay Graber, Bluesky's chief innovation officer and former chief executive, framed Quests as a fight against misinformation. "Attie's AI is a tool that helps you make sense of the internet," she wrote, "helping you fight back against the proliferation of misinformation and noise by giving you the tools to find the truth yourself."
Should Bluesky users be worried about AI creep?
Fairly or not, many Bluesky users are sceptical of AI for economic, political and environmental reasons. The platform built its reputation as a friendlier, more user-controlled alternative to X.
Bluesky is clearly aware of the tension. Graber's announcement leaned hard on the idea that Attie gives people tools to reach their own conclusions rather than feeding them answers. Whether that framing satisfies the sceptics remains to be seen.
For now, Quests is in beta. Users who want early access need to join a waitlist and will be invited in gradually over the coming weeks.
