Looking for a new social media platform because X, Threads, and Mastodon aren’t meeting your needs? You might want to give Bluesky a try.
In the wake of the U.S. elections, many users are flocking to Bluesky to escape the noise, chaos, and political drama that dominate other platforms. The atmosphere on Bluesky feels more welcoming, with far fewer trolls. The platform even reported adding over a million new users in the week following Election Day, making it one of the fastest-growing competitors to Elon Musk’s X and similar sites.
If you’re curious about Bluesky, here’s a quick guide on how it works:
Getting Started
If you’re not ready to commit to yet another social media account, you can still browse Bluesky. All posts and profiles are public, so you can explore the platform without signing up.
You may notice that Bluesky’s interface resembles X, which isn’t surprising since Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey was an early supporter of Bluesky. (He is no longer involved, and the platform is now managed by its own executive team as a public benefit corporation.)
Should you decide to create an account, you’ll need a username. Bluesky handles are unique because they end with the site’s domain, “.bsky.social,” but you can personalize your handle with a custom domain or even buy one through Bluesky—though this might not be necessary for new users.
Finding Interesting People
Bluesky offers users “algorithmic choice,” allowing you to customize the content you see, rather than relying on a centralized system controlled by corporate giants.
The platform promotes a user-driven experience, claiming that your online experience shouldn’t be dictated by billionaires making unilateral decisions about what you see. You can follow custom feeds set up by others or create your own. By tapping #Feeds in the left menu, you’ll see options like Cat Pics, Gardening, and My Bangers, which shows your most-liked posts. There’s also Catch Up, which displays the top posts from the last 24 hours.
Additionally, Bluesky has a “Discover” feed that suggests posts and a chronological feed of people you follow.
To help newcomers get started, Bluesky offers starter packs with recommended accounts and feeds to follow. These packs, which can be shared, don’t show up in search results but are listed in online directories. After signing up, I was introduced to one containing major news outlets. There are thousands of starter packs, covering everything from mainstream topics like Taylor Swift to niche interests such as cargo bikes or U.K. comedians. You can follow an entire pack or select individual accounts.
If you’re hoping to reconnect with people you followed on X, Bluesky offers a browser extension called Sky Follower Bridge that helps you locate X users who have migrated to Bluesky. Just double-check before following to ensure it’s the right person, as there may be other users with the same handle or display name.
How to Post
Once you’re ready to engage, posting is simple. You can write posts, reply to others, and upload photos or videos (with videos capped at 60 seconds). Posts have a character limit of 300, which is 20 more than X. You can also add emojis, GIFs, and use hashtags to highlight themes. Bluesky’s hashtag feature includes a menu for clicking on a hashtag, allowing you to view or mute posts about specific topics.
Handling Trolls
Bluesky’s decentralization approach extends to content moderation. Users have control over what appears in their feeds, including options to mute replies, reposts, or quote posts. You can mute or block specific accounts individually or in bulk by adding them to a moderation list. The platform also allows you to adjust the level of adult content visible in your feed.
Bluesky employs a team of content moderators to enforce the site’s rules and remove illegal content, but it goes further by open-sourcing its moderation system. This transparency allows users to set up their own content filters or “labelers.” These labelers can be used to categorize and filter content, either for moderation or creative purposes, like curating or verifying posts.
Some labelers, for example, are designed to identify AI-generated images or fact-check news articles. After subscribing to a political labeler, I saw posts in my feed flagged with labels like “!Donald Trump” or “!Democrat politician,” which were hidden unless I clicked to view them.
Bluesky’s approach gives users more power to control their experience, making it a unique alternative in the social media landscape.
