Bluesky applies to ICANN for .bsky and says it will not sell it
ICANN will publish the 2026 round applications on Oct. 7; Bluesky wants "sarahp.bsky.social" to become "sarahp.bsky".
Bluesky has asked ICANN, the body that administers internet domain names, for ".bsky" as a top-level domain, like .com or .org. The application is not yet public: ICANN said in its 2026 round calendar that it will publish the list of applied-for strings on Oct. 7 at 18:00 UTC, which is 12:00 in Mexico City (2 p.m. Eastern).
TechCrunch reported the application on Oct. 6, with information from Toni Schneider, the social network's chief executive, and Rose Wang, its chief operating officer. With ICANN's approval, an address such as "@sarahp.bsky.social" would be cut down to "sarahp.bsky".
Today a Bluesky user can use a domain of their own as a handle or accept one ending in ".bsky.social". Bluesky says it does not intend to sell the domains or make money from them, and it has not yet decided how they would be requested, registered or handed out. Wang framed it as a question of control: domains let people manage their own online identity.
For users, then, nothing changes for now. There is no date or mechanism for getting a ".bsky" address, and TechCrunch estimates the approval process would take 18 to 24 months.
What comes next is on ICANN's calendar. After the Oct. 7 publication come a string replacement period from Oct. 8 to 21 and a confirmation day on Nov. 17, when a comment and objection period begins that runs until March 16, 2027. Until ICANN publishes the list, it is not known whether Bluesky competes with another applicant for the same string, and this report cannot confirm the application in a primary document.
