Hajra Naz
Bluesky’s “Starter Packs”—curated lists of suggested users to follow—have become a popular way for people to connect on the social network. Now, X is copying the concept.
On Wednesday, X’s head of product, Nikita Bier announced that the Elon Musk-owned app will soon launch its own version of these curated lists, which it’s calling “Starterpacks.” (Originality, apparently, is optional.)
The goal of the new feature is to help users discover accounts that match their interests across categories like
- News
- Politics
- Fashion
- Technology
- Business & Finance
- Health & Fitness
- Gaming
- Stocks
- Memes, and more.
Unlike Bluesky, where anyone can create and share a Starter Pack, X’s lists are built internally. Bier explained that the company “scoured the world for the top posters in every niche and country” over the past several months to compile the collections. In other words, these Starterpacks are based on X’s own data, rather than individual users’ personal recommendations.
Bier said the feature will roll out to all users in the “coming weeks.”
Suggested user lists aren’t new to X. They’ve been part of the platform since its early days as Twitter, back when interest-based discovery mattered more than connecting only with friends, as was the norm on platforms like Facebook. Twitter users wanted to find people whose ideas and interests aligned with their own. To help them start, the platform offered lists of suggested users worth following.
Read More: Bluesky Unveils Moderation Updates to Enhance Transparency and Tracking
The feature has always been controversial. Being added to the Suggested Users List could massively boost a user’s popularity and follower count, which some argued was unfair. In 2010, Twitter shifted from editorially curated lists to algorithmically generated recommendations.
X isn’t alone in borrowing Bluesky’s idea. Meta’s Threads began testing its own version of Starter Packs in December 2024, featuring curated lists made by individual users. These appeared both when signing up and throughout the For You feed. Meanwhile, the decentralized network Mastodon has also been experimenting with “Packs” to help onboard new users.
