“Bluesky has the juice.”
This phrase seems to be coming up a lot as individuals flock to the decentralized X various, with Elon Musk’s role in boosting Donald Trump again into the White Home as a tipping level. Bluesky says one million accounts have joined the network since last week, bringing it to roughly 15 million users in total.
Bluesky is notable partially as a result of it’s constructed on an open framework referred to as AT Protocol, which permits for a decentralized community that’s not owned by anybody firm. Nevertheless it’s additionally essentially the most brazenly X-like of all of the text-driven social media feeds—more topical than Threads, and easier to jump into than Mastodon. (Regardless of the decentralized underpinnings, at current the one community you possibly can simply be part of is Bluesky’s personal, which helps with getting began.) Anecdotally, the vibe of Bluesky proper now additionally feels a bit like late-aughts X (again when it was still called Twitter)—bizarre and nerdy, but additionally fun and welcoming as extra people make their manner aboard.
However like all social community the place you’re ranging from scratch, it may be laborious to get began and keep away from the issue of a desolate feed on the outset. Listed here are some suggestions that may assist:
Peruse some Starter Packs
Starter packs are one in all Bluesky’s smartest options, permitting anybody to create an inventory of people price following. You may even comply with a whole pack with one click on (like, say, this pack of tech media people) immediately fixing the issue of getting an empty feed.
Whereas Bluesky doesn’t supply a centralized option to flick through starter packs, you’ll discover a searchable record of them on the third-party Bluesky Directory website.
Discover your X follows on Bluesky
Sky Follower Bridge is a free Chrome Internet Retailer extension that helps discover your individuals from X on Bluesky. It really works by scanning the names of everybody on X’s followers or following pages, then in search of Bluesky names that match.
The matching isn’t excellent, so hitting the “Comply with All” button could lead to having some random individuals in your feed. However you may also simply scan by way of the record of matches and comply with those who you’re sure are the identical particular person.
Comply with some various feeds
Bluesky affords extra management over what you see than another X various. The primary “Following” feed is only a chronological record of posts from accounts you comply with, whereas the “Uncover” and “Common with Buddies” feeds herald content material from outdoors your instant following record.
However in case you head to Bluesky’s Feeds section, you’ll discover all form of extra feeds so as to add. There’s a “News” feed with posts from verified publications, a “Mutuals” feed for posts from individuals who additionally comply with you, a “The ‘Gram” feed that’s simply footage, and even a “Quiet Posters” feed that filters out your noisiest follows.
The feeds you add will seem below the “Feeds” part in Bluesky’s sidebar menu. You too can “Pin” feeds to make them seem on the high of Bluesky’s house web page.
Tweak your major feed
Bluesky’s major “Following” feed doesn’t need to be purely chronological. For those who head to Settings > Following Feed Preferences, there’s an choice to “Present Posts from My Feeds,” which can combine in occasional posts from the feeds you saved above.
You too can conceal replies, reposts, and quote posts from this menu.
Discover extra people to comply with
Bluesky’s Search tab isn’t only for looking out. It additionally features a record of prompt accounts to comply with based mostly in your exercise. The extra accounts you comply with that match your pursuits, the higher these suggestions will get.
Look out for moderation lists
Much to Jack Dorsey’s dismay, Bluesky affords some highly effective moderation instruments to maintain undesirable posts and folks out of your timeline.
Most notably, customers can create sharable moderation lists, which may mute or block a whole group of accounts with one click on. Need to banish accounts that promote AI-generated content or scrape other creators’ material with out credit score? Discover a moderation record, hit the “Subscribe” button—sure, it is a bit counterintuitive—then both block or mute.
One caveat: Blocking in Bluesky is public info, and you may use the ClearSky website to see who’s blocking whom (together with you). If you wish to be discreet, mute individuals as an alternative.
Management your mentions
Whenever you’re posting on Bluesky, hit the “Anyone can work together” button to deliver up some helpful settings. You may disable quote posts, flip off replies, or simply restrict replies to your follows or the accounts you point out.
Bluesky additionally affords some additional anti-toxicity instruments after you’ve posted. Hit the “…” button on any reply to your put up to cover it only for your self or for everybody. You too can hit “…” when somebody quote-posts you and choose “detach quote” to forestall their followers from seeing what you’d written.
Mute away
Head to Settings > Moderation > Muted phrases & tags, and you may conceal posts out of your timeline in the event that they comprise particular key phrases.
Restrict your notifications
Bluesky’s notification filters are nonetheless fairly restricted, however you possibly can not less than hit the gear icon and test “Allow precedence notifications,” which limits alerts to replies and quotes from accounts that you just comply with. Bluesky says it’ll add extra fine-grained controls sooner or later.
Create complete threads
If Bluesky’s 300-character restrict feels constraining, simply hit the + button on the backside of the put up field. This allows you to add extra posts beneath the unique, so you possibly can put up the whole thread abruptly.
Add an alt-text reminder
Below Settings > Accessibility, contemplate turning on “Require alt textual content earlier than posting.” That manner you received’t neglect so as to add picture descriptions for people with imaginative and prescient impairments.
Attempt an alternate app or two
Bluesky’s cell apps and web site are superb, however energy customers could wish to take a look at some third-party Bluesky shoppers as an alternative.
Deck.blue, for example, affords a multi-column structure with a robust resemblance to Tweetdeck (now often known as X Professional), letting you arrange a birds-eye view of various feeds, mentions, lists, and search phrases. And in contrast to X Professional, it’s free (although you possibly can support the project via Patreon). In the meantime, FastCo editor Harry McCracken suggests Openvibe, which helps you to browse Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads in a single app.
Word that these apps require logging in together with your Bluesky credentials. As a substitute of giving them your precise password, head to Settings > App Passwords and create a single-use password for every app. These are single-use passwords you can revoke at any time, preserving your true Bluesky password secure.
A handful of caveats
Earlier than you get began with Bluesky, you also needs to concentrate on some limitations:
- Lists are troublesome to create, requiring you to lookup every account one-by-one and click on by way of a couple of menu layers simply so as to add a single particular person. (By comparability, the method for making a starter pack is way simpler, with an inventory of accounts to test off and a search field to filter them.)
- There’s no option to make non-public Lists to your personal private use.
- Personal accounts aren’t doable on Bluesky, and you may’t restrict posts to simply your followers.
- Extra granular notification filters ought to mean you can filter out likes and reposts.
- Bluesky’s huge promise of federation has not totally materialized (outdoors of early access to self-hosting). At the least for now, there’s no actual escape worth if Bluesky turns into X another time.
Last item: For those who do make it over to Bluesky, say hi.