Right here’s some cool stuff you are able to do with Bluesky

So, you’ve lastly determined to offer Bluesky a shot. The social community has come a good distance because the early bare-bones days of invite-only signups and not too long ago grew previous the 15 million person mark. Alongside the way in which, it’s gathered numerous acquainted posting platform options, like direct messages, pinned posts, and the power to publish movies as much as 60 seconds in size.

However there’s much more to it than that, and I’m not solely speaking about lore. (Sure, Bluesky has lore, and that’s in all probability probably the most basic Twitter factor about it.) It’s additionally bought numerous options and settings you received’t discover on X or Threads, like the power to decide on your individual algorithm or moderation instruments. These serve not simply as a quick lane to getting the platform to really feel full of life however may create the sensation that you just, the person, are answerable for your expertise.

Right here’s a primer on getting in control on Bluesky.

Bluesky’s Following feed is an easy chronological feed of posts from individuals you observe. However you too can customise whether or not it reveals replies, reposts, quote posts, and / or samples out of your customized feeds — setting all of those to “off” means your Following feed will solely show posts from individuals you observe. You’ll discover these choices in Settings > Following Feed Preferences.

The platform additionally allows you to determine the way you’d prefer to see reply threads by going to Settings > Thread Preferences. Right here, you possibly can kind by oldest, latest, most-liked replies, or have them randomly sorted. (Bluesky additionally calls this “Poster’s Roulette.”) There’s an choice to prioritize individuals you observe in a reply thread in addition to an experimental Threaded Mode choice for displaying replies as Reddit-like nested threads.

Whereas Bluesky provides two algorithmic feeds to start out — “Uncover” and “In style With Mates” — issues begin to get much more enjoyable if you get into customized feeds. Bluesky itself has made some, however many of the customized feeds are user-created.

These feeds are highly effective, making it simple to seek out individuals who share your pursuits, see solely sure varieties of content material, or kind by means of your individual posts. Desire a feed of cat footage? You bought it. Desirous about seeing which of your posts has performed the most effective? You’ll need the “My Bangers” feed.

To take a look at the customized feeds:

• Faucet the three traces icon within the higher left to summon the sidebar.
• Within the sidebar, choose Feeds.
• Seek for a feed or scroll by means of them to choose those you want.
• Click on or faucet on particular person feeds to preview them.
• To observe a feed from the Feeds web page, click on on the person feed, choose the three dots within the higher nook, after which choose Save to my feeds. It should now seem on the prime of your Feeds listing.
• To observe a feed from Bluesky’s homescreen, faucet Pin to Residence on the prime. Now, it would seem as a tab on the prime of that display screen.

One other simple option to discover Bluesky accounts to observe is Starter Packs. These are prepackaged lists of accounts, usually chosen round a theme. Bluesky’s workforce has made a few of these, however there are additionally 1000’s of user-made lists containing accounts that usually publish about particular matters or are a part of sure teams. (The Verge even has one; yow will discover it proper right here.)

Bluesky hasn’t made Starter Packs searchable but, so the one approach you’ll discover them is by looking out outdoors of the platform (I like this listing), recognizing them after they’re posted by different customers, or having them despatched to you. When you discover a Starter Pack you want, simply click on the Observe all button on the prime of the display screen to, you recognize, observe all of them, or choose the Observe button by particular person accounts should you’re feeling picky.

And if you wish to create your individual Starter Pack, it isn’t troublesome: Bluesky has instructions proper right here.

Like Mastodon, Bluesky is a federated platform, besides it makes use of AT Protocol as an alternative of ActivityPub. As such, you possibly can choose your individual area identify suffix on your deal with. You’ll must both personal that area or get it from one other service, resembling Threads. A phrase of warning, although: when you’ve performed this, your deal with / area identify combo is now free for another person to take. (Bluesky says that “any tags or mentions along with your outdated deal with will nonetheless level to your account,” although.)

To change to a customized area:

• Choose Settings > Change Deal with.
• Select I’ve my very own area.
• Enter your area, and choose Copy Area Worth, which copies the string of textual content on the finish of the document.
• Navigate to your area registrar (the corporate to procure the area from) and discover an choice labeled Handle DNS or comparable.

• Add a TXT document and enter the document data you gathered from Bluesky. Notice: this course of differs between area identify suppliers, so you could must lookup directions, resembling those I’ve linked right here for standard registrars GoDaddy and Squarespace.
• When you’ve saved the document, wait a couple of minutes, return to Bluesky, and choose Confirm DNS Document. A inexperienced banner within the Change Deal with field will seem to let you recognize you succeeded.

Like X and Threads, you possibly can pin posts to the highest of your account. Right here’s how:

• Navigate to the publish you need to pin.
• Choose the three dots beneath the publish.
• Choose Pin to your profile.

Bluesky’s moderation is buttressed by Labelers, that are third-party companies that may tag accounts or content material, both for informational functions or for moderation. The tags are wide-ranging and can be utilized to cover issues like posts with GIFs, crypto scammer accounts, model accounts, or phobia triggers.

It goes far past that, although. Some use it as a handy option to show or view pronouns, discover followers of their favourite sports activities groups, and even play text-based video games by means of Labelers like this TTRPG one. Every one differs in its use and often provides directions for utilizing it. Additionally, Bluesky doesn’t at present have a built-in option to discover Labelers, however there are lists and instruments for that.

To make use of a Labeler when you’ve discovered one you want:

• Navigate to its Bluesky web page.
• Choose Subscribe to Labeler.

If it has an inventory of labels to customise, choose an choice for every:
Off: to maintain the label off.
Present badge: to see the label when utilized to content material or accounts.
Cover: to cover content material or accounts with that label.

For those who determine you need to change these choices later, you are able to do so by going to Settings > Moderation and choosing the Labeler from the Superior part.

Bluesky allows you to create passwords for different apps to make use of. That is useful should you like to make use of apps — like third-party consumer Graysky — that reap the benefits of the Bluesky API however don’t need to give them your everlasting password. Right here’s how you are able to do that.

• Navigate to Settings > App Passwords (Beneath Superior).
• Choose Add App Password.
• Enter a reputation for the password or use the one Bluesky generates.
• If you wish to let the app use direct messaging, tick the Enable entry to your direct messages field. Notice: you possibly can’t change this feature later; you possibly can solely delete the password and create a brand new one for that app.
• Choose Create App Password.