Available to everyone from February 2024, Bluesky is currently on a wave of popularity. Imagined by Jack Dorsey, founder and former CEO of Twitter (now X), this alternative to Elon Musk’s social network recently surpassed the 20 million user barrier.
Since Donald Trump’s victory in the American presidential elections, it has benefited from the flight of many users from X and who are taking refuge on its platform. But how does this social network work? Tech&Co explains it to you.
· How to use Bluesky?
To use Bluesky, you obviously need to start by creating an account. Once this is done, you will notice that this platform is similar to X, with the menu on the left, the news in the middle, and the Search tab on the right.
As in Elon Musk’s social network, the user can choose between two news channels. The first, “Next,” includes posts from your subscribers. The second, “Feeds”, allows you to discover and access personalized feeds. Specifically, when clicking on it, the user is offered several news stories dedicated to a specific topic, such as science, artificial intelligence or even photographs of dogs.
Finally, to post a message, simply click “New Post” (on the left, below the menu). Limited to 300 characters, it is possible to include an image, video, GIF or emoji in these posts. And, as in X, users can asrepost or comment on a post. They can also block, mute and report accounts.
· How to import your contacts?
If you move from X to Bluesky, you can start from scratch, but it is also possible to import your contacts. To do this, simply download the Sky Follower Bridge extension from the Chrome Web Store.
Once done, go to Bluesky settings, then click on “Privacy & Security” and “App Password” to create an app password. The latter allows you to connect to your Bluesky account from other applications without giving you full access to your account.
You will then be asked to choose a unique name, such as “TransfertXTwitter” to then see the generated password, which you will need to copy and save somewhere because it will no longer be visible once the window closes.
Still in Chrome, go to the page dedicated to your subscriptions (in your profile) in X and click on the Sky Follower Bridge extension. Use your app ID and password to log in to your Bluesky account and click the “Find Bluesky Users” button.
Sky Follower Bridge will scan the accounts you are subscribed to on X for associated Bluesky accounts. Once the analysis is complete, a task that may take a few minutes, the extension will indicate the number of accounts present in Bluesky that it has detected. By clicking “View detected users”, you will see the accounts in question and can click “Stay on Bluesky” for each of them.
· How to import your publications?
It is also possible to transfer messages posted on X to Bluesky. To do this, you will need to download the Porto extension from the Chrome Web Store, which allows you to import these messages from a file. File that will be downloaded from your account on Elon Musk’s social network, by clicking on the “More” button, then “Settings and confidentiality”, “Your account” and “Download a file of your data”.
From there, you will need to click the “Request File” button. An operation that will last at least a few hours. As indicated by the specialized site 01net, you will be notified once your file is available. To download it, you will need to follow the same steps, that is, click on “More”, “Your account” and “Download a file of your data”.
It will need to be unzipped to use it with Porto. As with Sky Follower Bridge, you will need to create a password for the app. Once connected to Bluesky in Porto, click “Select a folder” and select the directory of your unzipped file, then click “Upload”.
After analyzing the file, Porto will tell you which elements you can import and which elements are excluded (citations, republications, etc.). All you have to do is click “Import to Bluesky” to transfer eligible posts to Bluesky. An operation that, once again, should take time.
Source: BFM TV
