This Chrome Extension Downloads All Your Old Tweets to Bluesky
If you’re one of those people who created an account with Bluesky back in late 2022 but left because no one seemed to be using it, I’m here to tell you that the decentralized social network is good right now and you should definitely try again. Especially if you have new motivation to break X habit. Moreover, there are now many third-party tools that make the transition much easier. I’ve already written about Sky Follower Bridge , an extension for Chromium, Firefox and Github browsers that makes it easy to find all the people you’ve followed on X (and those who followed you) on Bluesky. This weekend I tested another tool for indie developers that will also allow you to migrate your post history, i.e. most of your old tweets, in just a few simple steps.
Porto moves (almost) all your posts from X to Bluesky
The extension is called Porto and is currently available for Chromium browsers (although plans are in the works to cover Firefox and release the code as open source). Once you add it to your browser and set it up, you can use it to import many of your tweets and posts into the new social app—even those that predate Bluesky’s beta release in late 2022.
There are some limitations: at the time of writing, the extension can only download original tweets (and their associated media). By default, it excludes replies, tweet quotes, and retweets for obvious reasons, as this will require you to also import posts that are not exclusively tied to your account. Likewise, Porto is currently unable to import any external links attached to your tweets, so if you ever tweeted a URL with a comment attached, only the orphaned comment will appear on your Bluesky profile, minus the link to what you were talking about.
On the other hand, the extension is extremely easy to use and will only get better. Porto was built by three independent developers from Nepal – undergraduate students Ankit Bhandari , Yogesh Aryal and Adarsh Kunwar . I spoke with Bhandari via email to ask him about the development process and future plans for the donation-supported expansion, and he told me about the work already underway to expand its functionality.
Retweets and replies were initially excluded because “we can’t or don’t want to import other users’ tweets,” Bhandari said. However, the developers are exploring several different options for adding quotes to tweets and solving the problem of importing and displaying links. Additionally, support for video and linked tweets will come in the next update, expected later this week. Other settings include the ability to pause and restart the extension, or continue running in the background even if you close it.
Take a complete break without losing your messages.
Bhandari said he was inspired to create the extension because he was a big fan of Bluesky’s decentralized ethos —your Bluesky profile isn’t part of a specific social network, but rather your own little microblogging website. It was created in such a way that if Bluesky itself ever disappears, you can easily take all your content with you to another location. (X is less flexible, so extensions like Sky Follower Bridge and Porto are needed.) “I really liked Bluesky’s approach to customization and moderation, so it really inspired me to get into it,” Bhandari said. “I think I joined Bluesky when there were 5,000 users and [was] the first Nepali to join the platform… [a couple of months] after BlueSky launched a public beta by invitation.” Porto launched about two weeks ago and is now seeing a surge in user numbers as Bluesky grows rapidly – the social network has added nearly five million users since late October , when Elon Musk announced that X was changing the way it blocks on the platform. “People like the extension because most people don’t want their past content to disappear,” Bhandari said, adding that most Porto users seem to be people who deactivate their X accounts. (I’m one of them.)
How to Use Porto to Import Your Tweets into Bluesky
Importing your tweets is a fairly simple process, but does require some setup. The first thing you need to do is request an archive of data from X , since Porto doesn’t work by logging into your X profile, but by importing messages directly from your offline archive. If you’re concerned about your privacy, keep in mind that all of your tweets are already online and publicly available. What’s more, Bhandari explained, the extension only downloads and parses the “tweets.js” file that stores your messages, and doesn’t touch your private messages; Uploading to Bluesky actually happens locally, from your computer. To request X data, log into the site on your computer and click “More” in the left sidebar. In settings, select “Your account” and then “Download an archive of your data” . You will have to enter the password again. Click “Request Archive” on the next screen and then… wait for X to send you an email notifying you that the archive is ready to download. (X says this can take up to 24 hours, but it took me about twice as long.)
Once you have the archive, add the Porto extension to Chrome and log in using your Bluesky username and password. From there, click Select Folder and download the X archive from where you saved it on your computer. You can then enter a date range for the tweets you want to import and go back to the day you joined X/Twitter, even if it predates Bluesky’s founding. Once you’ve specified a date range, click Tweet Analysis . After a while, the extension will tell you how many messages it has found to import, as well as how many retweets/replies it will exclude. Click “Import to Bluesky” and you can surf the Internet as usual – just don’t close the extension or turn off your computer until it finishes processing.
Because it works from your archive rather than requiring you to access X to find your tweets, Porto actually moves quite quickly—I was able to add over ten tweets to my profile in an hour or two.
It can be a little tricky to figure out if all of your tweets have been migrated, since the total number presented in your archive includes replies and retweets that won’t make the jump, as well as the number of messages the extension tells you it’s collecting. for import does not match the number that is actually listed on my Bluesky profile, although this is due to a “data analysis issue” that will be fixed soon, Bhandari said. Oddly enough, all my data seemed to be colliding, including any photos or screenshots I shared. I randomly selected a few tweets and checked to see if they were imported, and they were all imported. (Bhandari also told me that since the extension adds functionality, running Porto again will also allow you to add more previously excluded messages.)
As the extension works, you can even watch the number of your Bluesky posts grow in real time – I now look like one of the most online users on the network , with around 3,500 posts, although I only joined in mid-2023 and started being active activity. I used it just a month ago. Moreover, I can destroy my X account from orbit and never think about it again.