The nonprofit organization A New Social has unveiled “Bounce,” a groundbreaking tool designed to allow users to migrate their social media accounts and followings between decentralized networks like Bluesky and Mastodon. This development marks a critical shift in the open social web, challenging the “walled garden” model maintained by tech giants where user data remains trapped upon account deletion.
Breaking the Silos of Decentralized Networks
While platforms operating on protocols like ActivityPub (Mastodon) or the AT Protocol (Bluesky) currently allow for internal migrations—such as moving between Mastodon servers or different Personal Data Servers (PDS) on Bluesky—cross-network migration has remained impossible. Users have long been unable to port their social graph from one ecosystem to another without starting from scratch.
Bounce solves this by leveraging the existing Bridgy Fed technology. It acts as a sophisticated middleman, enabling users to bridge their Bluesky profile to a Mastodon-compatible account and then finalize the move to their desired destination profile.
Technical Hurdles and Beta Launch
Currently in the proof-of-concept stage, the technology is slated for a beta release in the coming weeks. CEO Anuj Ahooja emphasizes that the tool is intended to prove that seamless migration is technically viable, though it is not yet optimized for casual users. The process involves significant complexity, as the two protocols handle data and identity migrations in fundamentally different ways.
There are current limitations to consider:
- One-way streets: Users cannot move back to a Bluesky PDS, as the platform has yet to implement the necessary infrastructure.
- Interaction gaps: Off-bridge interactions from non-bridged users on Bluesky are not currently visible on the Mastodon side, though developers are building notification features to bridge this gap.
- Visibility: Bounce includes a tracker that identifies which of your followed accounts are not yet bridged, allowing for manual re-following if those users eventually transition.
The Future of “People, Not Platforms”
The long-term vision for Bounce extends beyond Bluesky and Mastodon. A New Social aims to support a wide array of protocols and platforms, including photo-sharing apps like Pixelfed, blogging services such as Ghost, and networks built on Nostr or Farcaster.
By creating a standardized interface for these complex migrations, the team hopes to empower users to reclaim control over their digital presence. This philosophy—summarized as “People, not Platforms”—is the core driver behind the organization’s efforts to ensure that users are no longer tethered to a specific service if that platform no longer serves their needs or values.