Aeronaut is an actual Mac application for Bluesky

Keyboard shortcuts, unfortunately, are not exactly The same ones Twitter used a decade and a half ago, but they’re easy to recognize if you check the menu bar. (Command-R to reply, Command-L to like, and Command-T to post are just a few examples.)

Aeronaut also supports notifications, which is useful if you regularly find replies to your posts days after they happen, as I did. I appreciate that you can configure the types of notifications you want — in general, I only want to be notified if someone says something to me, not when they quickly hit the like button. And you can have different notification settings for different Bluesky accounts.

But what ties everything together is the paint. This application makes Bluesky fully compatible with other windows on your Mac desktop, which is exactly what I wanted.

There are some things that this app definitely doesn’t consider. There’s no support for multiple columns, which means you can’t use it as a replacement for the old Tweetdeck. There is no simple way I could find to create a theme. Aeronaut is also not completely free.

The app offers a free version, which lets you scroll through your feed and like or repost things. If you want to write posts, or respond to posts, you’ll need to pay for a subscription, which costs $2 per month. It’s another subscription, granted, but it supports the development of an application that likely wouldn’t exist otherwise. If, like me, you prefer your posts small in a small window, this price may be worth it.