X customers are fleeing to BlueSky: Right here’s a quick-start information on how to enroll

By now, you have in all probability heard about customers fleeing Elon Musk’s X. Sure, there have been just a few different moments over time since Musk acquired then-Twitter when customers determined to go away — there was even not less than one try and create an alternate Twitter earlier than possession by Musk was even seen as a chance.

However this time the exodus seems to be considerably larger. Following the 2024 presidential election outcomes and Musk’s help for President-elect Donald Trump, customers have been deactivating en masse.

And this time, it seems most everybody has settled on one specific X various: Bluesky.

Bluesky has rather a lot in widespread with X. It is a comparable public city sq. kind microblogging-style platform. In actual fact, earlier than Musk took over then-Twitter, it obtained an funding from the corporate. Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey even sat on Bluesky’s board up till earlier this 12 months.

Bluesky has gained greater than 100,000 new signal ups per day for the reason that U.S. election on Nov. 5. It now has over 15 million customers. It is loved a protracted keep on the very prime of Apple’s App Retailer charts as nicely.

Prepared to hitch? Here is the best way to get began on Bluesky:

How to enroll in Bluesky

Not too way back, Bluesky was invite-only. New customers might solely be part of the platform in the event that they obtained an invite from an current person.

That is not the case anymore. Anybody can join Bluesky.

To enroll, merely go to bsky.app and click on the Signal Up button. You may discover that every one the standard enter fields discovered when signing up for another social media platform are there similar to e-mail, password, and birthday.

Credit score: Bluesky

Nevertheless, there may be one factor that is totally different: Internet hosting supplier. Principally, Bluesky permits those that are extra tech-savvy to host their very own model of Bluesky, very like how various social media platform Mastodon has “situations.” Nevertheless, most customers simply haven’t got to fret about this. It is not going to have an effect on their expertise in any respect. Simply maintain Bluesky Social as your internet hosting supplier.

Credit score: Bluesky

On the following web page, customers will have the ability to choose their username. Select any obtainable title and Bluesky will then add “.bsky.social” to the tip of it. Why? As a result of Bluesky permits customers to make use of their very own web site area as their deal with. For instance, if you happen to personal YourName.com, your Bluesky deal with could possibly be “@YourName.com” on the platform. As soon as once more, this isn’t essential to get the complete Bluesky expertise. Most customers will simply go by @YourName.bsky.social.

From there, Bluesky offers you the choice to add an avatar and choose matters of curiosity in order that the platform can finest recommend accounts to observe.

Tips on how to get began on Bluesky

Congratulations, you are in. Your Bluesky account is all setup and now you may get began.

You may discover that Bluesky appears rather a lot like Elon Musk’s X, previously often called Twitter. There is a Uncover feed which is principally the For You feed with urged posts and content material. There is a Following feed, which solely contains posts from different Bluesky customers that you simply observe.

Credit score: Bluesky

On the left hand aspect menu, there is a Profile tab to your personal account and a Notifications tab that exhibits who interacted and replied to your posts. The Chat tab is principally the equal of Direct Messages.

Because you’re new to Bluesky, you are going to wish to begin off by following some accounts. Utilizing the Search tab, you’ll find Urged accounts beneficial by the platform primarily based in your pursuits. You may as well seek for particular individuals to see in the event that they’re additionally on Bluesky. Should you’re coming from Musk’s X, there is a third-party Chrome extension referred to as Sky Follower Bridge that may provide help to find the accounts you observe on that platform that even have an account on Bluesky.

In all probability probably the most distinctive side of Bluesky is the pair of associated options: Lists and Feeds. You is perhaps considering that Bluesky’s Lists function is a bit like Twitter Lists, nevertheless, the Lists function is rather more integral to how Bluesky works than that. 

Lists are a set of accounts that may be adopted, muted, or blocked in bulk. For instance, customers can create a listing of Bluesky customers that they assume all different customers occupied with a sure matter or interest ought to observe. Different customers can then simply observe that total listing of customers. On the flip aspect, Bluesky customers have additionally compiled lists of accounts that put up hateful or extremist content material. Customers can simply block all of the customers on that Listing and never see any of these account’s content material present up on their feed.

Credit score: Bluesky

Feeds then again aren’t lists of accounts, however curated feeds. Consider Feeds as personalized For You pages. There are Feeds for simply sure matters like Science or Artwork, there are feeds with content material only for particular forms of accounts, after which there are algorithmically primarily based customized feeds that depend upon what’s at the moment well-liked on the location. By following a feed, you add a model new tab in your important timeline to maintain up with alongside your Uncover and Following feed.

Credit score: Bluesky

However, it will get even simpler truly. Bluesky just lately launched a brand new function referred to as “Starter Packs” which principally recommends customers and feeds so you may get began. Different customers may also curate their very own Starter Packs to assist their new followers discover further accounts to observe too. Simply go to your account’s profile web page and click on the Starter Packs tab to get began.

Able to put up

This will all sound a bit a lot, nevertheless it’s actually not. Simply bear in mind, you needed to get began someplace on X and different social media platforms to. And if you happen to’ve made it this far, you are able to put up. That is the half that is actually paying homage to Twitter.

Credit score: Bluesky

Posts on Bluesky are restricted to 300 characters. Customers can put up pictures and .gifs as nicely. Bluesky additionally just lately added video, which may be posted so long as the clip is 60 seconds or much less.

Customers can like content material by clicking the guts icon. They’ll additionally repost content material in addition to quote posts.

And there you go. That is all of the Bluesky fundamentals. Now there is no excuse to not give a substitute for Musk’s X a strive.