You may have noticed a lot of people flocking to Bluesky in recent weeks: On some days, it’s seeing a million new sign ups within 24 hours. The platform has actually been around in some form since 2019, but it’s having a moment as disillusioned users migrate away from more established networks like X (formerly Twitter).
Bluesky looks a lot like X—it actually started out as a project within Twitter—so it’s not too difficult to dive in and start exploring. There are differences too however, and features you might miss, so we’ve put together this guide to make sure your time on Bluesky gets off to the best possible start.
The Bluesky basics
Once you’ve signed up for Bluesky, you can access your account on the web, and on the official apps for Android and iOS. You’ll be asked to complete two tasks as part of your onboarding: to like 10 other posts (so the Bluesky algorithm knows the sort of content you like), and to follow seven other accounts to expand your network.
Liking a post is easy: Just tap or click on the heart icon underneath it. The other icons on this row let you reply to or repost something (which works like a retweet). Tap or click on the three dots and you get a host of other options—you can translate a post, copy its text, or embed it somewhere else, for example.
On this same pop-up menu you’ll also see options to Show more like this and Show less like this, which is a useful way of telling Bluesky what you do and don’t like. It can help improve your feed both on the Following tab (users you’re following) and the Discover tab (which promotes posts that are doing well more widely across Bluesky).
You’re also able to hide posts, report posts, and mute threads from this same menu, so you don’t get notifications every time someone adds a new reply under a post you’re interacting with. It all adds up to improve your Bluesky experience over time, beyond the fundamentals of following accounts you like.
When you want to contribute, use the new post button (on the left on the web, in the lower right corner in the mobile apps). You’ll see you get 300 characters to work with per post, and using the icons next to the post screen you’re able to add images and video. Tap the gray audience button—which should initially say Anybody can interact—to set the rules about who can reply to the post.
Tap or click the three dots next to any of your own posts, and you can pin the post to your profile (so it always shows up at the top). There’s a search tool built right in, and this works in a similar way to X. You can look for mentions of particular words and phrases, for user accounts, and for hashtags.
Doing more with Bluesky
Bluesky also offers feeds, which you can see on the left-hand navigation pane on the web, and via the hashtag symbol in the top right corner on mobile. These give you alternative algorithm-driven lists for exploring more content on the platform: Pictures from artists, posts from your mutuals, posts from verified news organizations, and posts around certain topics, for example.
There are lists as well: Choose Lists in the navigation pane on the web, or tap the menu button (top left) then Lists in the mobile apps. Lists, as on X, are collections of user accounts, so you can keep all your gaming friends in one list, all your relatives in another list, and all your obscure literature accounts in a third list, perhaps. It’s up to you how you use them, and it can help you focus more on particular types of post.
Bluesky also lets you create what are known as Starter Packs: Shareable lists of interesting accounts that new users can follow when they’re just getting started. If you open up your profile on the web, then click on the Starter Packs tab, you can then click Create and put together your own Starter Pack for others to use.
You’ll need to give the pack a name, and add a short description, and you can then curate your list of accounts. You need at least eight people in your Starter Pack, and you can add feeds too. When it’s been made, it can be shared via link or QR code: You’ll be notified when someone makes use of a pack, but the people you add to it won’t know they’ve been included (unless they happen to come across it).
Delve into the Bluesky settings and there are a wealth of options to play around with: Click Settings on the left on the web, or tap the menu button (top left) and Settings in the mobile apps. Under Following Feed Preferences and Thread Preferences you can change some of the ways that posts appear on Bluesky—maybe you want to have the most-liked replies shown first in threads, for example.
Bluesky also has direct messaging: If you select Chat Settings in the main Settings menu, you can limit incoming messages to the people you’re actually following. Under Moderation there are more settings for staying safe, including tools to mute certain words and to mute or block accounts.
