You Can Now Bridge Fediverse and Bluesky Accounts

Bridgy Fed's new integration is in public beta.

Recently, Bridgy Fed launched a public-facing version of their integration between Bluesky and the Fediverse. The service is still in beta, and there are a few quirks, but bridged Bluesky and Fediverse accounts can now follow each other.

There are a few limitations: accounts using Bridgy Fed can only follow other accounts that have opted into the bridge. For now, there’s a relatively small number of accounts doing this, but hopefully the number will continue to grow.

How to Bridge Your Account

Right now, the process for bridging is a little bit obtuse. Fediverse handles more strongly resemble email addresses, whereas Bluesky accounts resemble traditional URLs.

Bridgy Fed works around this by translating one kind of handle into the other. For the most part, this works, but sometimes it’s hard to guess the correct user handle.

Another thing to consider is that Bridgy Fed is opt-in. Enabling the bridge does not mean that you’ll be able to follow anyone on the other network; instead it lets accounts on the other side follow you. You can still follow and interact with users on the other network, but only if they’ve enabled bridging as well.

Connecting to the Fediverse from Bluesky

To opt in to the bridge on Bluesky, you’ll need to follow @ap.brid.gy. A follow will opt your account into being bridged, allowing people to see and interact with your posts.

Connecting to Bluesky from the Fediverse

To accomplish the same thing on the Fediverse side of the bridge, you’ll need to follow @bsky.brid.gy@bsky.brid.gy. Once your follow is accepted, your account and posts will appear on Bluesky.

Sean Tilley

Sean Tilley has been a part of the federated social web for over 15+ years, starting with his experiences with Identi.ca back in 2008. Sean was involved with the Diaspora project as a Community Manager from 2011 to 2013, and helped the project move to a self-governed model. Since then, Sean has continued to study, discuss, and document the evolution of the space and the new platforms that have risen within it.

7 Comments

  1. @news This type thing is the inevitable consequence of open protocols. Sooner or later servers that natively speak, and internally bridge, bsky and ActivityPub will be available and widely used.

  2. I’ve tried it out and one thing I’m noticing is that posts originally made on Mastodon get truncated to meet Bluesky’s character limit, chopping off attached media in the process. Also posts made with content warnings on Mastodon get bridged over as just the content warning. Definitely a cool idea, but I hope that stuff gets fixed soon

  3. Well then, hello Bluesky users. What’s up, you almost-but-not-quite-really-federated freaks?

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