PDS MOOver: The mobile app?

Hey! I'm @baileytownsend.dev , I am the creator of pdsmoover.com . If you do not know what PDS MOOver is, it's a website that lets you move your account you usually use on Bluesky to other providers like Blacksky , Northsky , or Eurosky . Or you may also know PDS MOOver because of this very cute cow.

I am just now getting back from the Atmosphere Conf today, and if you do not know what that is. It's a gathering of our overall community that works on atprotocol, the underlying technology that runs Bluesky. This was the second meetup of this kind, and there were 350 in attendance across 4 days of us all hanging out and learning from each other. One of the things that I took away from it was that some people want to have an easy and local way to back up your account's identity and data (posts, pictures, etc). Then, if you ever need to restore your account, you can directly from your phone.

If you have already moved to one of the other provider's PDSs from Bluesky's servers, then you may have used my tool or one provided by Blacksky, Northsky, or Eurosky. I want to explore the possibility of creating a PDS MOOver app and I want to hear from you. The benefit of having a tool like this as an app is that it lets you backup your account to your phone and allows you to migrate between services easily if you ever need or want to. No more worrying about whether you have the recovery key saved anywhere. This will work for anyone, no matter where their account is, and keeps you fully independent if you ever need it. Which if you are already on one of those services, you are already in the best hands our community has, and I would happily host my account on any of them. But never hurts to have multiple backups that you fully control.

Why?

Bluesky is not the only website/app that uses this tech; atprotocol. A quick primer on the atprotocol. You can use your same exact account to login to stream.place to watch streamers, or you may like to write blog articles like this one on leaflet.pub , or missing the glory days of foursquare and want to use beaconbits.app or maybe want to have a private convo in DMs with someone with germnetwork.com . It's all the same account; it's all your social identity. It is the same login, and your data is saved in the same place, your PDS.

The promise of atprotocol is that NO SINGLE PERSON OR GROUP can say you are banned completely from the network. Now individual apps or PDSs may ban you from using their portion of the network. For instance, Bluesky could ban you today, and it is harder for you to interact with people again, but that does not mean other applications have banned you. You can also even use Bluesky in a limited capacity with things like reddwarf.app . There is also the risk that something could happen to your PDS provider.

How?

A PDS MOOver app fits into this by putting YOU fully in control of your social identity and data by backing it up to your phone, as well if you are ever banned from a service/PDS, you can pack your bags and moove to another one. It will do this in three ways.

The plan is to make this promise of atprotocol as easy and accessible to everyone as possible. No matter what community you are a part of, PDS MOOver will allow you to have full control in a way that makes sense and is easy for you to use.

The questions

Okay, now onto the questions with an important note. Much like your Bluesky posts, your answers are public and tied to your identity. This will mostly be yes/no questions, but I want to make sure you know this.

If there were a PDS MOOver app, would you use it to backup your account?

If you answered yes, do you have an iPhone or an Android?

Your account backup can be decently large, with mine being close to 1.5 GB. Is this a concern?

It should be noted that most of this size is in pictures and videos. So if you have a lot of those, the larger it is.

With your recovery key, would you feel comfortable if it were password protected and stored on PDS MOOver servers?

The key would be encrypted by a password, meaning we have no way to view it. It would be stored on your phone first and foremost, but it would have the option to backup to our servers by a password in case something ever happens to your cellphone.

Would you prefer to use your password to login or OAuth

For example, when you log in to Bluesky, the app asks you for your password. But if you use stream.place it redirects you to your PDS to log in. Each has its own pros and cons, with a password login meaning it is easier to stay logged in and ensure your settings are backed up (saved feeds, mutes, etc). It should also be noted with a password login this will only ever communicate directly with your PDS, never PDS MOOver servers.

Are you interested in advanced features that tie the recovery key to your device and it only ever stays there?

This is usually called a secure enclave. Meaning unless someone has physical access to your unlocked phone they cannot use this key to recover your account. The downside is every time you get a new phone, you have to change that key out and it cannot be backed up. But is very secure.

If you've made it this far. Thank you! These answers will help me a ton in deciding the best way to make the app to serve you best. Also, if you are interested in sponsoring some of this work. Please let me know! You can drop me a dm on Bluesky @baileytownsend.dev .