In the wake of turmoil at Twitter (now known as X), several social networks have popped up over the past couple of years to offer people an alternative to the Elon Musk-owned platform. One such network is Bluesky, which works a lot like X but avoids the baggage that Musk has brought to the table.
Officially launched in February of 2023 as an invite-only beta service, Bluesky has watched its user population grow, both steadily and dramatically. By November 2023, the platform had reached 2 million users. A year later, in November 2024, Bluesky saw a huge surge in its audience. At last count, the platform was home to more than 20 million users with the numbers ticking ever higher second by second.
Also: 7 things to know about Bluesky before you join – and why you should
Why the recent growth spurt? In short, X’s loss is Bluesky’s gain. As X has become more toxic and Musk more political, going so far as to play a role in the new Trump administration, more people have been heading for the exit. And many have headed toward Bluesky. But that’s not the only reason.
Beyond benefiting from X’s refugees, Bluesky offers a few benefits of its own. Bluesky helps you easily manage and block offensive posts and objectionable accounts. More people hopping onboard means more accounts to follow, turning Bluesky into a larger and growing community. And unlike X and Threads, Bluesky promises not to use your data to train AI chatbots.
Now, let’s look at eight ways to make Bluesky feel even more like home.
1. Use starter packs to find accounts
A great way to track down accounts to follow is through starter packs. Created by anyone on Bluesky, a starter pack is a collection of accounts related to a specific profession, industry, community, theme, or algorithm.
Among the more than 63,000 starter packs, you’ll find ones for journalists, stand-up comedians, photographers, New York City aficionados, podcasters, gamers, data science researchers, Star Trek fans, and fellow comic book nerds.
Also: How to migrate from X to Bluesky without losing your followers
To track down a variety of starter packs, check out the Bluesky Starter Pack Directory. You can also view the profile of an account you like and click the heading for Starter Packs to see if they’ve created any. Just click the Follow button next to any accounts you like or click Follow All if you like them all.
To create your own starter pack, select Profile and click Starter Packs. Click the Create button, name and describe your starter pack, and then select the accounts you want to add.
2. Use lists to find more accounts
Here’s another way to discover accounts that interest you. Anyone on Bluesky can create a list, which is a different type of collection composed of interesting accounts. To see if an account you follow has set up any lists, go to the profile and click the heading for Lists. Select any lists that appear and you can review the included accounts and posts. Follow any account that appeals to you.
3. Find lots more cool accounts to follow
As Bluesky has enjoyed a surge in user growth, you’ll find a lot more accounts to follow, including those of celebrities, political figures, journalists, newscasters, and more.
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Just some of the prominent names you might like to follow include Barbra Streisand, James Gunn, Guillermo del Toro, Mark Hamill, George Takei, LeVar Burton, Jeri Ryan, Patton Oswalt, Ben Stiller, “Weird” Al Yankovic, Stephen King, Gabrielle Union, Mark Cuban, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rachel Maddow.
To find a well-known person or anyone on Bluesky, run a search on the name via the Search field. After the results pop up, select the heading for People and you’ll see any corresponding accounts.
4. Control your feed
To help you see the accounts you follow and find new ones, Bluesky provides different feeds, including Following, Discover, and Popular with Friends. The Following feed shows you posts only from the accounts you follow. The Discover feed displays the latest new and topical posts. And the Popular with Friends feed shows you posts that are popular among the accounts you follow.
You’re even able to find other feeds. Go to the Feeds page. Swipe down to the section for Discover New Feeds and tap the plus icon for any feeds you want to follow. You can also search for feeds. Type a name or term in the search field. After the results appear, select the heading for Feeds to find ones related to your search.
5. Use a custom domain
By default, your username in Bluesky takes on the domain name of bsky.social. But if you already own a domain name, you can use that instead. By turning to your own domain name, you’re able to customize and verify your identity on Bluesky and tie it into an existing website. To try this, go to Settings, select Account, and then select Handle. Click the button for “I have my own domain” and follow the steps to set this up.
6. Combat trolls
Sure, Bluesky is a friendlier and less toxic environment than X, but that doesn’t mean it’s free of offensive and abusive posts or accounts. Thankfully, the platform provides the necessary tools to combat hateful posts and people.
To deal with an offensive post, click the ellipsis icon next to it. Several options are available. Select Mute thread to turn off any notifications about the conversation. Select “Mute words & tags” and you can add any words or tags in the post that you don’t care to see. Select “Hide post for me” to permanently hide that post. And select “Report post” to report it to Bluesky by selecting a reason for your report.
Also: How to manage Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads all from one free app
To deal with an offensive account, click the ellipsis icon next to its name. From the menu, select Mute Account to no longer see the account. Select Block Account to prevent the account from replying to you, mentioning you, or interacting with you. And select Report Account to report it to Bluesky.
7. Filter the content you see
Bluesky offers you simple tools for managing blocked and muted accounts and filtering out certain content. For this, head to Settings and select Moderation. At the top, you can view and control muted words and tags, moderation lists, muted accounts, and blocked accounts. Next, turn on the switch for “Enable adult content” if you wish. You can then tell Bluesky to show, warn, or hide adult content, sexually suggestive content, graphic media, and non-sexual nudity.
8. Avoid AI training
Don’t want your posts and personal data to be used to train some AI? Bluesky has you covered. X can use your data to train its Grok AI bot. Meta will use your info on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads to teach its own Meta AI. Bluesky uses AI internally to help with content moderation and the Discover feed. However, the platform promises that it will never use your data for AI training.
Also: Need to recover your Facebook or Instagram account? Meta has a new trick for that
“We do not use any of your content to train generative AI, and have no intention of doing so,” Bluesky said in a November 15 post. “Bluesky uses AI internally to assist in content moderation, which helps us triage posts and shield human moderators from harmful content. We also use AI in the Discover algorithmic feed to serve you posts that we think you’d like. None of these are Gen AI systems trained on user content.”
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Source: Robotics - zdnet.com
