Many are turning away from X, formerly known as Twitter, and are moving to a new social media platform: Bluesky Social.
Bluesky, however, isn’t all that new. In fact it was initially released as an invite-only platform in early 2023 until February 2024 where it opened up to the general public.
Essentially, Bluesky is a micro-blogging platform that’s modelled after X/Twitter, but isn’t owned by Elon Musk, and allows you to see content based on your interests while easily hiding content that you’d rather not see.
If you’re keen to see what all the fuss is about, follow our step-by-step guide on how to set up a Bluesky account.
What you’ll need:
- Access to the Bluesky website
- An email account
The short version
- Visit the Bluesky website
- Click Sign up
- Enter your information
- Choose a Bluesky handle
- Complete the CAPTCHA challenge
- Upload a profile picture
- Select your interests
- Click Let’s go
- Start exploring
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Step
1Visit the Bluesky website
We’ll be demonstrating using the Google Chrome desktop browser, however the steps are the same using a mobile browser or the Bluesky app.
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2Click Sign up
You’ll find the blue Sign up button either in the top left corner of your browser (if you’re using a desktop) or towards the bottom of the screen (on a web browser).
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3Enter your information
Ensure you use an email that you have direct access to, as you’ll need to verify your address in order to make full use of Bluesky.
You’ll also see an option for ‘Hosting provider’. Unless you know of a specific provider you’d like to join, just leave this as Bluesky Social. For more information on what this means, scroll down to our Troubleshooting section.
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4Choose a Bluesky handle
You can change this later on if you prefer, via your Bluesky Settings.
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5Complete the CAPTCHA challenge
Prove you’re not a robot by completing the on-screen CAPTCHA.
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6Upload a profile picture
You can upload a profile picture right away, which Bluesky advises will help prove you’re not a bot, however you can come back to this later by entering your Settings.
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7Select your interests
Select multiple options based on the type of content you’d like to be shown.
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8Click Let’s go
Here you’ll see more information about Bluesky and your profile settings. Read through and, once you’re happy, click the blue Let’s Go button.
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9Start exploring
From here you can follow other users, repost, quote and like Posts. In order to write your own Post, you will need to verify your email.
Troubleshooting
According to Bluesky’s Terms, you must be at least 13 years old and “legally permitted to use Bluesky Social based on the laws in your country”.
Similarly to Mastodon, Bluesky allows users to host their own version of the social media platform. Most users won’t have to worry about this so you should keep Bluesky Social as your hosting provider, unless there’s a specific provider you know you should join.
