Bluesky has long been touted as a competitor to X but recent news events have seen millions of people sign up.
More and more people are leaving billionaire Elon Musk’s X in favour of Bluesky, and the platform claims to have seen one million sign ups in just one day this week.
This appears to have been motivated by Mr Musk’s affiliation with the president-elect, Donald Trump, who recently made the tech boss a co-leader of a new Department of Government Efficiency.
Mr Musk’s political alignment, along with long-running issues such as users complaining about a lack of moderation, has led to a renewed departure from the app.
If you have moved over to Bluesky, it can feel like an uphill battle to build up the same feed and network. Here’s a guide on how to find people to follow to get your time on the app off to a good start.
Scan the ‘starter packs’ in the Bluesky directory
The best place to start is Bluesky’s own directory of who is online, as well as its starter packs that can help to connect you to your industry and interests
For example, you can find ready-to-go packs of accounts that are verified by Bluesky, those associated with different topics like startups and data analysis to football and marketing.
Whatever you want to find on Bluesky, you can get started with a bundle of related accounts. From there, you can also expect to have relevant account suggested to you as you browse the platform.
This extension will help you find all your X followers
If you already have a number of followers or followed accounts on X, you can use a Chrome extension called Sky Follower Bridge, coming soon to Edge, Firefox and GitHub.
Once you've added the extension to your browser, navigate to your X profile and click on the link for the list of people you're following.
Toggle the Sky Follower Bridge extension open from your browser's toolbar and you should be met with a popup that asks you to log in to your Bluesky account.
Once logged in, the extension will automatically detect anyone who you follow on X who also has a Bluesky account.
You can then follow away to your heart’s content and find all the old familiar faces you knew from X. Follow through to a separate window to start following, or use the Follow All button to follow your whole network at once.
This is also a good time to prune your following if you have had an X account for a while.
Find the celebs
There are also plenty of celebrities leading the charge towards Bluesky whose posts you might enjoy.
Actor Jamie Lee Curtis publicly announced her departure from X, writing: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Courage to change the things I can. And the wisdom to know the difference.”
She is joined by Bette Midler, who recently declared that Mr Trump is "a downright moron".
Music legend Dionne Warwick, whose Twitter posts have frequently been nothing short of iconic, has also decamped to Bluesky, along with pop star Lizzo, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, Hollywood A-lister Ben Stiller and author Stephen King.
