'Live Now' Badges are Coming to Bluesky: Here's Everything We Know So Far

Most social media networks want to draw users onto the platform and keep them there. But, once again, Bluesky is taking the path less travelled.

The decentralized social platform loves subverting the norm, and their latest announcement is the perfect example. Bluesky is testing a new livestreaming feature, starting with a small group of accounts and a few high-profile partners.

While livestreams won’t be hosted on Bluesky, users will be able to discover when someone is live — and jump directly to YouTube, Twitch, or another platform to watch.

As Blueskky COO Rose Wang explains: “We aren’t trapping you in Bluesky. We want you to use Bluesky to discover what’s happening.”

Sounds pretty neat, right? Here’s what we know so far.

A new ‘Live Now’ badge is rolling out

When a creator or brand in the test group adds a livestream link to their profile, Bluesky will display a red border around their profile picture and a 'Live' callout just below.

Click the profile pic, and you’ll be taken straight to their live content — whether that’s a game, a news stream, or a Q&A on Twitch.

“Bluesky is the place for breaking news and real-time updates,” the company shared on its official account. “This tool supports streamers, journalists, and anyone sharing live moments as they happen.”

This focus on discovery, rather than keeping users within the app, is a notable departure from platforms like X, which historically preferred to host content natively.

How Bluesky’s Live Now badges work (so far)

Here’s a quick summary of how the test feature functions:

• Creators add a livestream link (YouTube, Twitch, etc.) to their post or profile
• A Live Now badge appears in the feed and around their profile picture
• Users who click through are taken directly to the livestream, off-platform
• This feature is not yet available to everyone, but Bluesky has confirmed plans to expand it

It’s a limited test — for now

Bluesky says only a “handful of accounts” can currently access this feature, but the company is being transparent about the early-stage nature of the rollout:

“This is an early test,” the company said. “We’re announcing this publicly so you know what we’re working on, even though the feature is not widely available yet. We’ll refine this feature based on feedback before a full launch to all users.”

So far, US basketball leagues, NBA and WNBA, are confirmed testing partners — both accounts now feature the new live indicators when promoting games.

What does this mean for creators?

The new livestream functionality lines up with the new platform’s push to support creators’ routes to monetization, even if that requires their users to leave Bluesky.

The creator economy is “beautiful,” Rose Wang shared in an episode of Buffer Chat: The Podcast, in late 2024 — and Bluesky has big plans for them.

Rose gave the example of a stand-up comedian who would want to share a link to their live show with their social media audience.

“As soon as you post the link for your stand-up show, what we’re seeing is that people are getting de-promoted,” she said. “So their posts that are funny and get 1,000 likes — because it helps people stay on the platform — then when they try to ask folks to leave to go to see a show, they get 60 likes. They’re like, something’s wrong, right?”

“And so that’s the promise of Bluesky,” Rose said. “You get to own that relationship with your audience. There’s no de-promoting links on Bluesky.”

With the new live badge feature, the hypothetical comedian will not only get to share a post that’s not downranked — their live show will be spotlighted in theirhis follower’s' feeds.

On Buffer Chat, Rose also shared how Bluesky is thinking about native routes to monetization for creators.

The plan is to build a system where creators can get paid right on Bluesky and any other platforms built on their open AT Protocol ecosystem.

“And then we'll increase the volume of those transactions, and the creators and folks take home most of it, and we just take a percentage of the transaction fee,” Rose says.

“As they make more money, we should make money — but if they aren’t, we shouldn’t either.”

That said, Rose shared that due to the complicated nature of payment systems, monetization probably won’t be coming to Bluesky for a while. “It takes time — payments just take a while. But absolutely, it’s one of the things that we are prioritizing.”

What’s next for livestream badges?

While there’s no firm timeline for a full rollout, Bluesky’s team says they’ll be gathering feedback from this first test phase and refining the feature as they go.

If you spot a red-ringed profile on your feed with a ‘Live Now’ badge, now you know what it means — and where it’ll take you.

Watch this space for more.

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