Are you one of the millions of people who recently migrated from X to Bluesky? If so, let’s demystify some of the new terminology you may have encountered.

What is a Skeet?

First, perhaps the most awkward and least popular term: “skeet.” A skeet is simply a post, what X called a tweet. They’re slightly longer than a post on

In reality, you won’t see this term used or present in the interface as much. Aside from minor differences, you can think of a skeet exactly like a tweet. The biggest difference is that the posts you write are more likely to be seen by people who follow you. The default feed (“timeline”) displays all posts from people you follow rather than using an algorithm that tailors your feed to your needs.

And what are flows?

Speaking of “flows”, Bluesky uses them too, but this makes them much more powerful. The directory lets you find and subscribe to interesting feeds other than the default timeline. Each feed is a collection of posts, with an algorithm to decide which posts it includes.

Subscribed feeds will appear as tabs at the top of your timeline and in the right panel.

A popular feed, created by developer Bluesky Jaz, is “my pins.” This handy feed shows you all the messages you’ve replied to with an emoji pin (), so it acts like a simple bookmarking service.

Custom flows are open to everyone, although the barriers are quite high: you’ll need programming experience and a solid grasp of the Bluesky API.

And the lists?

While a feed is a collection of skeets, a “list” is a collection of user accounts. They have become widely used as a moderation tool to round up accounts that engage in negative behavior like spamming or abusive posting. Their use can, however, be controversial: political lists can only serve to encourage segregation.

Starter packs are a specific type of list, serving a very positive function. These lists contain user accounts usually themed around a particular topic as recommended accounts. For example, if you want to follow your favorite How-To Geek writers, there’s a starter pack for that:

The handles seem a little strange, though…

Just like on X, your username is key to Bluesky interactions. Both services sometimes refer to it as a pseudonym, but Bluesky’s has at least one point since they are also all domain names.

…so, for example, you will see “@georgetakei.bsky.social” instead of “@GeorgeTakei”. But you can change your id to a custom domain if you have one; big accounts like “@nytimes.com” have done just that.

Is there anything else I should know?

Most other terms you see on Bluesky will be familiar and intuitive. “Chat” is the equivalent of It is worth checking out our Bluesky Guide for Beginners if you still don’t know how to do this.

Remember, Bluesky has plenty of options to adjust the service to your liking, so experiment by setting up your “Following” feed or creating a custom one. Also, don’t forget to check the settings when you post a new skeet.