There are many changes in the air in the world of social media as TikTok prepares to go dark, Mark Zuckerberg removes content restrictions on Meta apps, and Elon Musk continues to play with the X algorithm to suit his personal preferences.

Fortunately, despite the fickle nature of most app users, Bluesky seems to have managed to break through and become a truly great alternative. And thanks to the basic nature of its open protocol, anyone can create their own apps that piggyback on the Bluesky social graph.

Case in point, a developer named Sebastian Vogelsang built an app that is actually a new version of Instagram on top of Bluesky’s AT Protocol. Because it uses the Bluesky social graph, posts are added to Flashes are also visible in the main Bluesky client, and vice-versa—photos posted by Bluesky are visible in Flashes. The app only filters text-based posts and only displays photos or videos. Through the app, users can share photo slideshows with up to four photos, or videos that are one minute long.

Vogelsang said that Flashes is not intended to be a complete rip off of Instagram and will not receive many features that Instagram has. That makes sense, since the app is just a skin of the Bluesky app. Many people lament that they long for the days when Instagram was simple, not filled with AI-generated content or weird recommendations. Flashes may help fill that hole.

Bluesky got a big boost from Elon Musk’s acquisition of X, then Twitter, although its growth has slow in recent months. It is estimated that Bluesky has almost 27 million active users. That’s nowhere near the size of apps like Instagram and TikTok, and it’s still smaller than X. Reaching critical mass for any social network is extremely difficult, and X is only seeing influence. This grew as Musk began serving as President-elect Trump’s right-hand man.

But Bluesky has a bright future if it can continue to grow at a moderate pace. The company raised a $15 million investment back in October with plans to launch paid subscriptions so the company doesn’t rely on advertising or collecting user data. Most of the major social networks these days plug their APIs and do not allow third-party clients because they make it difficult to display and target advertising, and the data itself is used to train AI.

Vogelsang said TechCrunch that Flashes should launch in the coming weeks. Anyone interested in checking it out can follow the Flashes account on Bluesky for updates.