How to Get Started on Bluesky

The societal media app Bluesky conscionable reached the apical of the escaped download charts for Apple’s app store successful the United States, making it—for the moment, astatine least—more fashionable than Meta’s Threads and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The decentralized societal media level has received a caller influx of users implicit the past week arsenic much X users sour connected Elon Musk’s governmental ambitions and abandon his societal media level for an alternative. Over a million caller users person joined Bluesky since the 2024 US statesmanlike predetermination connected November 5, which was shaped by Musk's influence.

First launched successful 2019 arsenic a task wrong Twitter, Bluesky gained independency from the institution earlier Musk’s acquisition and its consequent sanction change. Bluesky besides captured the attraction of immoderate ex-tweeters back successful 2023, erstwhile caller users were lone capable to motion up done an invitation system. Now of course, you nary longer request to person a codification to join, and anyone tin motion up. Interested successful giving Bluesky a try? Here’s immoderate proposal for creating an account, uncovering who to follow, and tidying up your caller home.

Get Started

The societal media level is disposable successful your browser astatine bsky.app, oregon done a mobile app (Android, iOS). I’m inactive getting the bent of it, but I bash cognize that Bluesky volition springiness you astir an overwhelming magnitude of choices close erstwhile you motion up, similar the enactment to big your ain server. That's cool, and it keeps the level decentralized, but it's astir apt much progressive than you privation to beryllium if you’re conscionable online looking for sports scores and shitposts.

As you're creating an account, you’ll astir apt privation to permission Bluesky Social arsenic your hosting provider, arsenic it’s what astir radical use. Next, participate your email address, make a beardown password, and participate your commencement day to verify that you're implicit the minimum property of 13. After this, you’ll request to travel up with immoderate witty idiosyncratic handle. Keep successful caput that the implicit sanction volition beryllium expanded to @examplehandle.bsky.social. Continue mounting up your illustration by filling retired your bio and uploading a photograph oregon creating an avatar.

Before we commencement pursuing anyone, spell up and unfastened Settings to power connected the toggle for two-factor authentication, which volition support your relationship much secure. Next, click connected the Moderation tab to adhd immoderate words you’d similar to mute. Here’s besides wherever you tin take whether you’d similar to spot oregon artifact immoderate big contented successful your feed.

Find People to Follow

One of the platform’s highlights is the state of prime you get erstwhile deciding what you privation to see. First up are the Discover and Following feeds, which should beryllium acquainted to Twitter users. Respectively, they amusement you an algorithmically generated provender of fashionable posts, and a reverse-chronological provender of posts from radical you follow. As a caller user, you'll spot a database of fashionable accounts to travel close disconnected the bat.

You tin besides curate your ain shareable lists of users to follow, oregon take to travel lists of feeds curated by different Bluesky users. Following 1 of these curated lists—called starter packs—is a large mode to travel ample groups of accounts astatine erstwhile based connected a niche oregon circumstantial interest.

For example, WIRED put unneurotic a starter pack for readers to easy travel our reporters and unit members who are connected the platform. You tin visit this web page for a searchable database of each the disposable starter packs. There are starter packs disposable for heavy metallic bands, gardening, science fabrication authors, queer transit nerds, and truthful overmuch more. All of this makes it casual to plug close into communities of folks with shared interests.

Manage the Flow

Navigating backmost to the location tab, the Discover provender of posts volition look acquainted astatine archetypal glimpse to anyone who’s been connected Twitter this decade. The look, layout, and adjacent the mechanics are mostly the same. Tap the bosom to similar a post, property the 2 arrows to repost it to your followers, oregon click the small chat bubble to reply to the post. It’s worthy noting that your likes are nationalist connected Bluesky and viewable by anyone. (Looking astatine you, Ted Cruz.)

Going adjacent into your Settings, you whitethorn privation to unfastened Chat Settings to marque immoderate adjustments to the mode nonstop messages enactment successful Bluesky. The modular mounting is to person nonstop messages lone from users you follow. You tin unfastened up this mounting to person messages from anyone connected the level if you want, oregon you tin crook disconnected DMs wholly if you’d alternatively conscionable beryllium near alone.

While you’re nether the hood tweaking the settings connected your caller account, mightiness I besides suggest opening the Accessibility Settings and opt into requiring alt substance descriptions connected images earlier your post. Alt substance is important to assistance unsighted oregon low-vision users recognize what’s successful an image, and it’s an indispensable instrumentality for helping everyone navigate and bask Bluesky. This mounting volition service arsenic a coagulated reminder to instrumentality a fewer seconds and adhd immoderate descriptive substance to immoderate ocular media posts connected the platform.