It appears that TikTok’s potential ban in the United States is inspiring the emergence of new alternatives based on decentralized protocols. Such is the case of Skylight—backed by Mark Cuban—an app that seeks not only to be an alternative to TikTok but to go much further in the future.
The AT Protocol is facilitating the birth of more decentralized social platforms. The initial wave came in response to people looking for a competitor to X (FKA Twitter). At that time, Bluesky and Mastodon, among others, popped up. Meta’s Threads, although it doesn’t use a decentralized protocol, was born with a similar idea. Now, with TikTok’s possible exit from the US, apps like Reelo and Skylight want to compete for that potential place.
Skylight wants to be a strong, decentralized TikTok alternative with the backing of Mark Cuban
Skylight was born a little differently than other social platforms. Co-founders Tori White (CEO) and Reed Harmeyer (CTO) developed it. White, unlike lifelong tech experts, is a self-taught software developer and former travel influencer. The idea for Skylight arose from the fear of losing their entire community previously built on TikTok. They realized the need for a ban-proof social platform in the US.
Of course, developing such a service requires funding. The startup raised funds from a pre-seed round from Mark Cuban, who had previously expressed his intentions to found a similar app (a decentralized alternative to TikTok). Skylight also received capital from Leslie Feinzaig’s Graham & Walker Venture Fund.
Developing the app on the AT Protocol has multiple advantages. One of them is that users of all apps and services based on it can access and interact with each other’s content. You can think of it as a huge global feed with around 33.8 million users today. It’s basically the dream of those seeking complete interoperability in social media. On the downside, AI companies can use the content of posts in this “global feed” to train their services. This generated controversy among Bluesky users at the time.
Familiar features, others in development
Anyway, Skylight offers some features common to other social networks. There are built-in video editing tools, options to follow other profiles, and the ability to interact with posts (comment, like, and share), among others. However, developers already have ideas for new features for the future. The list includes personalized feeds, more gesture navigation options, custom playlists, bookmarks, stitching, and more.
Skylight is available as a beta on Android through the Google Play Store. Meanwhile, iOS users can now download a public release. Interestingly, active development of the app lasted only about ten weeks.
