X users are fleeing to BlueSky: Here’s a quick-start guide on how to sign up

By now, you’ve probably heard about users fleeing Elon Musk’s X. Yes, there have been a few other moments over the years since Musk acquired then-Twitter when users decided to leave — there was even at least one attempt to create an alternative Twitter before ownership by Musk was even seen as a possibility.

But this time the exodus appears to be significantly bigger. Following the 2024 presidential election results and Musk’s support for President-elect Donald Trump, users have been deactivating en masse.

And this time, it appears most everyone has settled on one particular X alternative: Bluesky.

Bluesky has a lot in common with X. It’s a similar public town square type microblogging-style platform. In fact, before Musk took over then-Twitter, it received an investment from the company. Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey even sat on Bluesky’s board up until earlier this year.

Bluesky has gained more than 100,000 new sign ups per day since the U.S. election on Nov. 5. It now has over 15 million users. It’s enjoyed a prolonged stay on the very top of Apple’s App Store charts as well.

Ready to join? Here’s how to get started on Bluesky:

How to sign up for Bluesky

Not too long ago, Bluesky was invite-only. New users could only join the platform if they received an invitation from an existing user.

That’s not the case anymore. Anyone can sign up for Bluesky.

To sign up, simply go to bsky.app and click the Sign Up button. You’ll notice that all the usual input fields found when signing up for any other social media platform are there such as email, password, and birthday.

However, there is one thing that’s different: Hosting provider. Basically, Bluesky allows those who are more tech-savvy to host their own version of Bluesky, much like how alternative social media platform Mastodon has “instances.” However, most users just don’t have to worry about this. It will not affect their experience at all. Just keep Bluesky Social as your hosting provider.

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On the next page, users will be able to pick their username. Choose any available name and Bluesky will then add “.bsky.social” to the end of it. Why? Because Bluesky allows users to use their own website domain as their handle. For example, if you own YourName.com, your Bluesky handle could be “@YourName.com” on the platform. Once again, this is not necessary to get the full Bluesky experience. Most users will just go by @YourName.bsky.social.

From there, Bluesky will give you the option to upload an avatar and pick topics of interest so that the platform can best suggest accounts to follow.

How to get started on Bluesky

Congratulations, you’re in. Your Bluesky account is all setup and now you can get started.

You’ll notice that Bluesky looks a lot like Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter. There’s a Discover feed which is basically the For You feed with suggested posts and content. There’s a Following feed, which only includes posts from other Bluesky users that you follow.

On the left hand side menu, there’s a Profile tab for your own account and a Notifications tab that shows who interacted and replied to your posts. The Chat tab is basically the equivalent of Direct Messages.

Since you’re new to Bluesky, you’re going to want to start off by following some accounts. Using the Search tab, you can find Suggested accounts recommended by the platform based on your interests. You can also search for specific people to see if they’re also on Bluesky. If you’re coming from Musk’s X, there’s a third-party Chrome extension called Sky Follower Bridge that can help you locate the accounts you follow on that platform that also have an account on Bluesky.

Probably the most unique aspect of Bluesky is the pair of related features: Lists and Feeds. You might be thinking that Bluesky’s Lists feature is a bit like Twitter Lists, however, the Lists feature is much more integral to how Bluesky works than that. 

Lists are a collection of accounts that can be followed, muted, or blocked in bulk. For example, users can create a list of Bluesky users that they think all other users interested in a certain topic or hobby should follow. Other users can then easily follow that entire list of users. On the flip side, Bluesky users have also compiled lists of accounts that post hateful or extremist content. Users can easily block all the users on that List and not see any of those account’s content show up on their feed.

Feeds on the other hand are not lists of accounts, but curated feeds. Think of Feeds as customized For You pages. There are Feeds for just certain topics like Science or Art, there are feeds with content just for specific types of accounts, and then there are algorithmically based custom feeds that depend on what’s currently popular on the site. By following a feed, you add a brand new tab on your main timeline to keep up with alongside your Discover and Following feed.

But, it gets even easier actually. Bluesky recently launched a new feature called “Starter Packs” which basically recommends users and feeds so you can get started. Other users can also curate their own Starter Packs to help their new followers find additional accounts to follow too. Just go to your account’s profile page and click the Starter Packs tab to get started.

Ready to post

This may all sound a bit much, but it’s really not. Just remember, you had to get started somewhere on X and other social media platforms to. And if you’ve made it this far, you’re ready to post. This is the part that’s really reminiscent of Twitter.

Posts on Bluesky are limited to 300 characters. Users can post photos and .gifs as well. Bluesky also recently added video, which can be posted as long as the clip is 60 seconds or less.

Users can like content by clicking the heart icon. They can also repost content as well as quote posts.

And there you go. That’s all the Bluesky basics. Now there’s no excuse to not give an alternative to Musk’s X a try.

Topics
Social Media
X/Twitter