If you’re leaving Twitter/X behind, I don’t blame you. For one, I had to write Twitter/X, because I’m not sure what to actually call it post-Elon’s confusing rebrand.
It’s sad, because many of us have had our Twitter accounts for years now, building a real community of follows we’ve enjoyed reading in between bouts of existential crises. Before you delete your Twitter for good and move on to something better, it’s worth taking the time to find as many of those Twitter follows as you can on the platform(s) you’re thinking of moving to. Here’s how to do it.
Mastodon
Before Bluesky, Mastodon was the go-to Twitter alternative. It might very well still be, since Bluesky is so exclusive. (If you’re interested in making the switch, you can learn more from our guide here.)
One of the best ways to find your Twitter friends on Mastodon is through Fedifinder, a service that locates handles in the Fediverse. The Fediverse is a network of decentralized social media platforms that, while independent, can also seamlessly communicate with one another. As Mastodon and its instances are a part of the Fediverse, any of your Twitter follows that have connected Mastodon accounts will appear in this search.
The first step is to connect your Twitter account to Fedifinder. When you do, you’ll have to agree to let Fedifinder access the following data:
People who follow you and people who you follow.All the Tweets you can view, including Tweets from protected accounts.Any account you can view, including protected accounts.Lists, list members, and list followers of lists you’ve created or are a member of, including private lists.If you’re okay with that, continue on. Once Fedifinder scans your follows list, you can scroll down and check out the results, separated by instance. I didn’t have many results on my list: Three instances, with a total of six follows listed.
Bluesky
If you’ve made it into the exclusive club that is Bluesky, congratulations! Other than Mastodon, Bluesky seems to be the primary social media platform many Twitter users are placing their bets on. As such, you’ll probably find a lot of them here.
You may have even noticed your follows have added their Bluesky handles to their Twitter names and/or bios. That’s one easy way to identify them. But there are also other tools you can use to bridge the divide. One easy one is Fedifinder: Go ahead and repeat the steps above to find your common Bluesky handles.
However, you can also use the Chrome extension Sky Follower Bridge to quickly find Bluesky users from your follows list. That said, it takes some setup to get started. As explained out by Fadatechmas, you need to begin by creating a temporary app password in Bluesky from Settings > Advanced > App Passwords to login to any third-party apps. Generate the password, then save it. From here, install the Sky Follower Bridge extension on your browser, then head to your Twitter follower page. Launch the extension, then enter your Bluesky login and your new app password.
Now, Sky Follower Bridge will search your follows list and look for any Bluesky users. When it finds one, you’ll have the option to click “Follow on Bluesky” to do just that.
Sky Follower Bridge
Instagram’s Threads
Threads is the newest social media platform on the list, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use tools to find your friends. Lucky for you, Fedifinder now works to locate Threads users from your follows. That’s because Meta now supports ActivityPub, an open source social media protocol. I can see which of my Twitter follows are on Threads, the same as I can for Bluesky and Mastodon.
For anyone Fedifinder doesn’t find, you may have to go old school, and search for your follows one-by-one. While most users don’t post their Threads account in their Twitter name, check bios to see if they’ve added them there. Even if you don’t see the handle in the name or bio, check to see if the user has a Linktree or an equivalent: It’s possible they’ve added their new account to one of these links.
You can also search on Threads itself. Start with their handle, since people tend to reuse usernames, but if that doesn’t return any results, follow up with their first and last name after.
Spoutible
Unlike the above three platforms, Spoutible has zero convenient solutions for finding Twitter friends, even those with connected handles. The best approach, then, is similar to alternatives we’ve discussed above: First, scan your Twitter follows for anyone who has added their Spoutible handle to their Twitter name, bio, or Linktree.
Of course, some users might not add their Spoutible handle to their Twitter at all, so your second attempt should be to search Spoutible for those follows’ handles. In many cases, they’ll like use the same handle, but, if not, try their full name.
Discord
Discord is in the same boat as Spoutible, and is at more of a disadvantage since most (if not all) Discord users don’t post their handle in their Twitter name. On top of that, Discord users are probably more likely than most to be using a different handle than they do on social media sites like Twitter, especially since the platform is so centered around gaming. Still, check bios and Linktrees to see if you can find them on the platform.
