Skylight is a new TikTok Alternative startup that aims to take on TikTok. It is launching its mobile app to the public on Tuesday. The short video site is live on the Apple App Store and in beta on the Google Play Store just 10 weeks after it was created. Skylight is backed by billionaire investor Mark Cuban and others. It is based on the AT Protocol, the same technology that the decentralized social network Bluesky is based on.

A New Player in the Social Media Arena

Skylight was started by Tori White (CEO) and Reed Harmeyer (CTO), two businesspeople who are interested in enhancing social media and making it more secure. The app offers users trending short videos, an in-app video editor, and the possibility of commenting, liking, and sharing videos. It also offers customized user accounts and features to follow others.

Skylight contrasts with TikTok because it's decentralized. Skylight runs on the AT Protocol (ATProto), so the videos posted on Skylight become accessible and actionable by users of Bluesky and other applications built on ATProto. This automatically connects Skylight users with more than 33.8 million people, considerably expanding engagement capacity.

Why Skylight Was Created

White, a retired travel influencer who became a self-taught Seattle software developer, recognized a chance when news of a possible TikTok ban in the U.S. broke out. Afraid to lose her videos and community, she and Harmeyer looked for alternatives.

They were attracted to ATProto following the fact that Bluesky was stable, compared to the initial Twitter that regularly showed the notorious "fail whale" mistake. The reliability of the protocol led them to create Skylight as a decentralized, "ban-proof" TikTok alternative.

Early Development and Community Involvement

Before coding even a single line, White utilized her social media expertise to market Skylight. She documented Skylight's development on TikTok on her @buildwithtori handle and gained almost 50,000 followers within a brief period. This early progress helped Skylight to expand and obtain early beta testers.

"We knew people needed that, but we needed to get them to care as well," White said at the ATmosphere conference in Seattle. "So, we began with distribution first."

Features and Future Plans

Skylight now supports three-minute videos, up from one minute. The founders want the app to be more than a mere clone of TikTok. Future releases will include personalized feeds, new forms of interaction beyond scrolling and swiping, and features such as sounds, duets, stitching, bookmarks, and playlists.

Backed by investors such as Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban has talked about his desire to invest in a decentralized version of TikTok Alternative. His original investment, coupled with funding from Leslie Feinzaig's Graham & Walker Venture Fund, has provided a significant cash infusion to the explosive growth of Skylight.

Public Access

After exhaustive testing, Skylight is finally available to all on the Apple App Store, with a testing version also on the Google Play Store. While social media consumers look for freer and self-sufficient platforms, Skylight is a convincing TikTok Alternative and other big social media corporations.

Skylight has a new strategy, a bigger pool of users, and investor backing. It will shake up the short-form video market. But now the million-dollar question: Can Skylight dethrone TikTok? We'll see.