With everyone starting to make the jump over to BlueSky, one of the biggest things I see asked is “How do I find my friends on here that were over there? Is there an easy way to import them?” The simple answer is YES!
The technical answer: Yes, but it requires a bit of work, geekiness and patience, along with some SERIOUS vetting before you start following folks. First thing you’ll want to do is head over to this site: https://skyfollowerbridge.com
Once there, and using Chrome or Firefox, install the appropriate extension for the browser you’re using right now. Expand the directions there and make sure you follow along. Make sure you enable the extension to show up at the top of your browser.
Next, head over to your Following or Followers page. You need to be on one of these two pages BEFORE you do the next step.
Click on the SkyFollowers icon at the top of your browser. The icon looks like this:
Log in, using your BlueSky username and password (or application password, if you set it up. Your username does not need to contain the @ sign. Go ahead and run through the process, per instructions.
One thing that wasn’t clear when I did this: When your numbers are no longer going up, that’s when you can stop the search. Just based on your counts, it should be fairly quick. And it’ll even show you who you’re already following. By the way, you can do both followers and following. And if you’re consolidating accounts, you can repeat the process with each of your (THAT OTHER PLACE THAT SHALL REMAIN NAMELESS) accounts and your single BlueSky account.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you fully vet each person before you follow them. Look for common items (profile handles, avatars, profile headers, website/bio info similarities, etc). When I did mine, I followed several accounts that were *very* different than the good folks I knew from that other place. You can re-run the “import” script multiple times without hurting your BlueSky account.