Bluesky, the Twitter/X alternative that exploded in popularity a few months ago when Elon Musk took a more active role in supporting Donald Trump during the US Presidential election, just hit 30 million active users and its popularity shows no signs of slowing down as Musk keeps on showing us how much of a douchebag he is.
While it has a familiar interface to Twitter/X, Bluesky's unique features give users more control over what they see in their feeds. You can create and share customised algorithms called “Custom Feeds”, take advantage of "Starter Packs" for finding people discussing topics you're interested in, and protect yourself with moderation lists created by the community. This is quite a different approach to conventional social media networks.
If you're apprehensive about moving over to a new social network and building an audience from scratch all over again but can't stand hanging out on X any longer, software exists to help you migrate across without starting over entirely. One great tool is Sky Follower Bridge – a Chrome web browser extension that finds your followers on X that are also on Bluesky. You'll need to do this on a desktop computer, not a smartphone or tablet.
Install the extension in Chrome via the Chrome Web Store, then log in to Bluesky and click Settings, then Privacy and Security, then App Passwords.
We are going to generate an app password that Sky Follower Bridge will use to connect to your Bluesky account without having to give Sky Follower Bridge your real Bluesky password.
Click Add App Password and give it a name – anything you like is fine! The series of numbers and letters that pops up on the screen is your app password. Keep this in a safe place as you can't see it again if you lose it. Somewhere like a password manager is ideal.
Now go to your followers page on X - https://x.com/your_username/followers (replace "your_username" in the URL with your actual X username!) – then press Alt+B on Windows or Option+B on macOS to launch the Sky Follower Bridge extension, and enter your Bluesky username and the password we generated in the previous step.
A list of all your followers and people you're following that have the same username on X and Bluesky will appear and you can select which ones you want to follow on Bluesky. Visit https://x.com/settings/blocked/all and do the same thing if you want to block the same users on Bluesky as you did on X.
After setting your Bluesky account up, don't hesitate to tell your clients and fellow workers on X that you're also on Bluesky. The more people that say they're moving away, the more likely it is that others will join you!
Tryst.link is also on Bluesky – give us a follow and stay up to date with the latest blog post and Tryst.link product announcements.
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