10 Life Hacks Every Bluesky User Should Know
If you’re tired of X and Threads, maybe it’s time to move on to greener, or perhaps bluer, territory. Lifehacker’s Joel Cunningham switched to Bluesky back in 2024, and many of our writers and editors have since followed suit and are enjoying life on the site. It turns out, with the right platform , you can fall in love with social media again .
Bluesky is very different from most other social networks. You have extensive control over who sees your posts and how they respond, as well as the ability to block and mute user notifications in bulk and customize moderation settings. If you’re new to Bluesky or only using the default settings, now’s the time to explore all the ways to personalize your experience.
Use starter kits to find people to follow.
If you’re just starting out with Bluesky, your news feed may seem pretty empty, especially if you want to go beyond the algorithmically driven Discover feed and see what makes the app unique.
But there are ways around this problem. Bluesky calls them “Starter Packs,” and anyone can create and share them. Starter Packs are essentially lists of profiles you can follow with a single click. A site like the Bluesky Starter Pack is a great place to find these packs, as it allows you to search and filter by your interests or even the most popular accounts. Open a Starter Pack and click the “Follow All” button if you want to follow everyone on the list. Or, you can open the “Select” Starter Pack and select people to follow individually.
Find and pin news feeds
Bluesky encourages you to go beyond your usual network of mutual acquaintances, which is why it has a “Feeds” section in the sidebar. Any community member can create their own feed, and you can subscribe to it with a single click. This means you don’t have to stick to the usual default settings, like the “Following” feed, and you can browse posts however you like.
Bluesky has a few algorithmically generated feeds, such as “Discover” and “Popular with Friends,” but the vast majority of feeds are handcrafted. You can search for any topic, and when you like what you see, you can click “Pin Feed” to add it to the top of your scrolling window. Then, all you have to do is click or tap the pinned feed to switch to it.
Try applications that use the AT protocol, such as Flashes and Deck Blue.
Like Mastodon, Bluesky encourages third-party application development. Developers can directly connect to the underlying AT protocol and build their own applications on top of Bluesky.
This means that yes, there is an alternative to Bluesky in the form of TweetDeck, both as a web app and asa Mac app ( honestly, I prefer the Mac app ). If you’re more interested in photos, you might also want to try Flashes or Pinksky , which recreate the feel of Instagram by focusing on photos and videos.
Securely sign in to third-party apps using app passwords.
Bluesky doesn’t have a traditional authentication system that lets you log into third-party apps simply by connecting them to your Bluesky account (like you can with Google or Apple accounts). So how do you use all these third-party apps built on the AT protocol? Simple: unique app-specific passwords . Each Bluesky service or app will prompt you for a unique password that will only work for that specific service and won’t be the same as your main Bluesky password. This way, your Bluesky account won’t be compromised even if an app leaks data, and you can quickly change your password or revoke access if you no longer want to use that service.
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > App Passwords > Add App Password to create a new app password. Be sure to give it a unique name so it’s easy to find. You can delete an app password by clicking the “Delete” button next to the service name.
Choose who can answer you and how.
Among social networks, Bluesky arguably offers the best moderation tools. A prime example is the ability to restrict replies to your posts .
Go to Settings > Moderation > Interaction Settings and you’ll find a variety of options. You can allow everyone to reply to your messages, or take the extreme step of blocking replies to your posts.
There are also more detailed settings. You can restrict responses to only your subscribers, people you follow, people you mention, or create a list of people who are allowed to reply to you.
While you’re here, you can also disable the “Allow Quotes” feature to prevent other platform users from directly reposting your posts on their own pages.
Take control of your posts, even after they’re live.
If someone has quoted your post and you’d rather not, you can quickly fix it. Go to the post, click the three-dot menu, and select “Unquote.” The post will remain as is, but your quote will be removed.
You can also quickly hide replies to a message. Select a reply, tap the three-dot menu, and choose whether to hide the reply only from yourself or everyone. Note that this won’t prevent people who see your messages from taking screenshots and sharing them as images.
Use community-created block and mute lists.
Bluesky offers moderation lists to help you follow new accounts and block accounts in bulk. You’ll find a variety of moderation lists for different types of users online, either by searching Bluesky or on third-party sites like ClearSky . This way, you can quickly block brands, scammers, or anyone you don’t want to see with a single click. This is a great way to weed out at least the most prominent or questionable profiles. To use a moderation list, open it, click “Follow,” and then select ” Mute Accounts” or “Block Accounts.”
Subscribe to any profile using RSS.
At Lifehacker, we often say: you really should use RSS . Like Bluesky, it’s another way to discover and read new blogs and news without relying on algorithms. And you can even subscribe to Bluesky profiles in your favorite RSS reader , without any configuration. Go to the Bluesky profile and add ‘/rss’ to the end of the URL. Then copy it and add it as a source to your RSS reader . It’s as easy as pie.
Repeat this for as many profiles as you like, sort them into easy-to-access folders, and now you can read posts and links from your favorite Bluesky profiles right in your RSS reader, easily integrating them into your articles and blogs.
Use your own domain name as your username.
This is one of my favorite features. Bluesky allows users and organizations to change their usernames to their own custom domain addresses. For example, the username “@lifehacker.bsky.social,” which is written in the default format, can be changed to “lifehacker.com.”
This works through a simplified self-verification process (although Bluesky now also offers a traditional verification system ). To do this, you’ll need access to your domain manager.
Go to Settings > Account > Identity and select “I have my own domain.” Then enter your domain address. Bluesky will show you the DNS records that need to be updated using your domain manager. Then, click “Check DNS Record” and wait for your identity to update automatically.
Post to Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon simultaneously.
Even if you use Bluesky, that doesn’t mean you have to use it exclusively. You can use Bluesky as your primary platform and simultaneously publish your content to other networks, such as Threads and Mastodon, using the Croissant app. This simple app lets you simultaneously connect your Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon accounts , taking advantage of their interconnectivity with Fediverse. You can then use Croissant to draft your posts and submit them to all three networks simultaneously. You can also schedule posts, which is useful if you use Bluesky professionally. Croissant costs $2.99 per month or $19.99 per year.