Who's behind it? Here's another Twitter/X connection: Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey was formerly on the board of directors, and the Bluesky project began in 2019 when he was Twitter CEO. Jay Graber is the Bluesky CEO. Even Bluesky's name is related to X's former name. Dorsey confirmed a Bluesky user's speculation that the name ties in to Twitter's bird mascot, the idea being the bird could fly even more freely in an open blue sky. Dorsey left the board in May, apparently because the service added moderation tools. Even though the name of the site doesn't capitalize the S in "sky," it's pronounced "blue sky." Don't rhyme it with "brewski." The app is built on something called the authenticated transport protocol, or AT, a social media framework created by the company and made up of a network of many different sites. And how is Bluesky different? Domains as handles For one thing, you can set your domain as your handle, if you wish. This could help with verification, which became a heated issue for Twitter once Musk began removing blue check marks from verified accounts that refused to pay a monthly fee. "For example, a newsroom like NPR could set their handle to be @npr.org," the Bluesky Social company blog notes. "Then, any journalists that NPR wants to verify could use subdomains to set their handles to be @name.npr.org. Brand accounts could set their handle to be their domain as well." Moderation Moderation is also different. Another blog post says that Bluesky is already using automated moderating, and has a system of community labeling, which is described as "something similar to shared mute/block lists." Users of many social media platforms are shown posts from a feed selected for them by an algorithm, though you can influence that by following or blocking certain accounts. But Bluesky wants to give you a chance to pick from a variety of different algorithms to determine what you see. You can mute accounts, which prevents you from seeing any notifications or top-level posts from them, or you can block accounts, which takes that a step further, meaning you and the other account both cannot see or interact with each other's posts. And you can report posts or accounts for abuse. The blocking option may be of special interest to users who were unhappy with X's recent change in its blocking behavior. A couple of features -- being able to hide replies to your posts and detach your posts from other users' posts that quote yours -- are designed to stop pile-ons and other toxic behavior. Keeping connections It's possible that creators who acquire a following on Bluesky might one day be able to keep connections with those who follow them, even if the service itself changes. If you want to follow the people you followed on X, the third-party Sky Follower Bridge is a free tool that scans your follower list and follows accounts with the same names on Bluesky. You'll get a few false positives and a lot of dormant Bluesky accounts, but overall we've found it works very well. Custom feeds Algorithms are the rules that determine how content is filtered and recommended to users. Bluesky has something it calls custom feeds, which allows you to choose the algorithm that determines what you see. "Imagine you want your timeline to only be posts from your mutuals, or only posts that have cat photos, or only posts related to sports -- you can simply pick your feed of choice from an open marketplace," a blog post on the site says. A longer post goes into more detail about custom feeds and algorithmic choice. Click the hashtag icon on the bottom of the app to add and discover new feeds. Developers can use the site's feed generator starter kit to create a custom feed, and the site promises that eventually, the tools will be easy enough that the rest of us can build custom feeds. Starter packs Want to jump right in to Bluesky by following a curated list of people? You can follow starter packs, which are lists created by users and usually themed. CNET has a lengthy explanation here, but in short, they're similar to what X calls lists, and are a good way to get a solid feed going that caters to your interests.