Posting text-only messages on Bluesky is pretty straightforward. On the web app, you find the blue pill shaped New Post button at the bottom of the left menu. On the mobile apps, tap the blue circle-shaped button in the bottom right of the app.

Posting skeets with link preview cards

For many platforms, including a URL when you’re composing a message causes a link preview card to be added automatically. Bluesky, on the other hand, will offer an option to add a link preview card, but you must manually add it.

Click the “Add link card: “ option that appears after you enter a URL into the post composition text box to add the link preview card.

After you add the link preview card, you can delete the URL text from the composition box if you like — the link preview card won’t be deleted.

Quote skeeting

You can “quote” a skeet by linking to that skeet’s URL and adding the URL’s link preview card.

There are two ways to get the URL of a skeet. You can click the ellipses button on the skeet and select the Share option in the menu that comes up. (In the mobile app, you may see one more menu after selecting the Share option. Choose the Copy option in that menu.) You can also click on a skeet to see its page, then copy its URL manually.

When you compose your quote skeet, paste the URL of the skeet you’re quoting in the compose box and add the link card. After you add the link card, you can delete the URL from your post if you like — the link preview card won’t be deleted.

Posting images (with alt text)

Posting images on Bluesky is pretty familiar if you’ve posted images on other social media sites before. On Bluesky, there’s a strong culture for adding alt text, or an image description, to all images you post. This allows people who use accessibility aids to understand what you’re posting, even if they can’t see the picture.

After you select the picture you want to post, tap the ALT button in the top right corner. You’ll be prompted to enter alt text for your image.

If you’ve never written image descriptions for alt text before, this is a great resource to help you get started. Here are the basics:

• Given the context of your skeet, describe the most important parts of the image.
• Don’t use alt text as a space to make jokes or observations extraneous to the image’s context.

<aside> 🛑 Currently, you can’t post videos or gifs.

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