Starting today, you can connect your Bluesky account to Flipboard, and Pixelfed will follow soon. Like Mastodon, Bluesky is a Twitter alternative, while Pixelfed is a replacement for Instagram. All of these rising platforms are part of the federated social web, an open-source network for people looking for a better way to connect beyond the “walled gardens” of today’s social media.
Flipboard is all in on this federated future. By integrating these services into our platform, Flipboard serves as the singular place to discover and engage with all the activity happening on the growing social web. And don’t forget: all of this new content thrives next to our topic feeds and stories from top publishers and creators. Flipboard is — and always will be — the one place for all the news that’s fit to flip, no matter which service or outlet it comes from.
Here’s how to connect your Bluesky account to Flipboard so that you can get Bluesky content in a beautiful, flippable format within our app. If you don’t yet have a Bluesky invite code, you can join the waitlist here.
1. Make sure your Flipboard app is updated.
2. On iOS, go to your Following tab (a grid with four squares) and select Accounts. On Android, go to Settings > Connected accounts.
3. Select “Bluesky (beta)” and enter your credentials for your Bluesky account.
4. If you see a pop-up that says that Flipboard has “detected non-app password use” (iOS) or “Continue without app password?” (Android), it’s recommended that you go into your Bluesky settings > App passwords and create one. App passwords are an initial solution for authentication that will let people use third-party clients without having to trust them with their primary password. (Learn more about app passwords here.)
While Flipboard’s Bluesky integration will work without setting an app password, it’s best that you log out and log back into your Bluesky account on Flipboard with your new app password. This will protect your Bluesky account from future hacks and takeovers.
5. Now you can browse Bluesky on Flipboard! Choose a section to flip through posts from the people you follow, your own posts and a trending feed of what’s hot. Anytime you want to save a post into a Flipboard Magazine, use the + button to flip it into a collection. You can also like, comment on, and re-share Bluesky items via Flipboard using the social actions at the bottom of each post.
Stay tuned to our blog, Inside Flipboard, for the latest on the Pixelfed integration when that’s launched in the near future.
We know it’s early days for these services. That’s part of why we’re so excited to join in the movement and step into a new era of connectivity with you.
— The Flipboard Team