More from Instagram’s Threads: all the updates on the new Twitter competitor
The app now has 150 million monthly users, Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday during Meta’s earnings call. There were almost 100 million monthly Threads users in October.
The metric I’d really like to see, however, is daily users. Meta is juicing the visibility of Threads posts in the Instagram feed, and I’ve heard that a lot of user growth has been coming from that drive-by traffic. If it really wants to kill X, Meta still needs to build a sticky experience that more people come to daily.
It’s not just us Swifties who have been waiting impatiently for April 19th — The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD) release day. It appears Mark Zuckerberg had a carefully worded pun locked and loaded for today, which also marks the pop superstar’s debut on Threads.
Now, Threads posts with Reels (like this one of Becca Farsace checking out the new Insta360 cam) viewed in the Android or iOS app will display the video in line instead of burdening viewers with the responsibility of an additional click. Web viewers, however, will still need to use their imagination or click through.
While the “recent” filter should make it easier to find real-time search results, the “top” option shows popular posts related to your search. The test is only rolling out to a small number of users, according to Instagram head Adam Mosseri.
A test Meta is running on some accounts puts a messaging button on the profile page with an in-app messaging box.
As Meta told Engadget, this is still using Instagram’s DM system and there are currently no plans to build a standalone messaging experience on Threads. Even still, a step in the right direction.
Because of a temporary injunction (PDF) from the Turkish Competition Authority (TCA), which ruled that linking Threads and Instagram data without user opt-in abuses Meta’s social media dominance. Turkish Threads users can either delete their profiles or deactivate them until / if the service gets turned back on.
TechCrunch notes the country had previously fined Meta $18.6 million in 2022 for data-sharing across its apps.
Meta briefly blocked links to The Kansas Reflector, News From The States, and The Handbasket due to a “security error,” spokesperson Andy Stone said. The Handbasket writer Marisa Kabas says Meta wouldn’t give further details about the blocks or send a follow up notice to users who saw a security warning.
Reflector readers noticed they were unable to share an op-ed critical of Facebook published Thursday. On Friday, The Verge was able to replicate the “Link not allowed” error on Threads, though other Reflector links could post.
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While Threads continues to test the waters of federation, the team is working on other features too. Continuing a push that started with “NBA Threads” outreach events around summer league and All-Star Weekend, and snagging posts from newsbreakers like Woj and Shams, it’s now testing live scores of NBA games and plans to add other sports.
Of course, it’s March, so why not start with the Women’s and Men’s NCAA basketball tournaments and bring in the NBA during the playoffs?
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the feature is no longer in testing, which means you’ll now get to keep tabs on what people are talking about from the app’s search tab and For You feed.
Yes, Windows users can get the Threads app Mark Zuckerberg is showing here from the Microsoft Store
But once it’s installed, you’ll get the same desktop web app experience (loaded in Microsoft’s Edge web browser) that we’ve had access to since August.
It’s been 12 days since Meta announced it was testing a way to easily follow what people are talking about on Threads, and now many users are reporting seeing it — including our own Richard Lawler.
I don’t have it yet, because I’m cursed. If you do, you’ll see “Today’s topics” either between posts in the For You feed or in the search tab.
Zuck says both features are in testing, and Meta just forwarded us the below:
Drafts: allows you to save in-progress posts for future editing and posting.
Threads Camera: opens your phone’s camera directly in the Threads composer, making it easier to share photos on Threads.
Today’s release of Draft and Camera are initial tests. Currently, you can save one draft post, and you can take one photo per post with the Threads Camera.
Correction, 7:34PM ET: Meta originally told us you could take videos too, but now says videos aren’t available yet. If you don’t see the options, it’s because “This is a global test with a limited number of people.”
Meta is only rolling out the test to its Facebook iOS app, and not in the EU, the company confirmed to TechCrunch today. Threads posts already show up on Facebook, provided you don’t opt out.
TechCrunch writes that when user whimchic tried the feature in the Facebook iOS app, the post went to both platforms, but without any indication on Threads that it was a cross-post.
The feature will work similarly to bookmarks on Instagram, allowing you to save posts and look at them later. It’s still in a “limited test” though, so you might not have it right away.
That comes courtesy of Alessandro Paluzzi, who frequently reverse engineers and reveals Threads and Instagram features. The new option lets you turn fediverse sharing on and off at will and you can easily copy your username formatted for the decentralized Activity Pub social protocol.
Instagram boss Adam Mosseri said recently that Threads users will also be able to follow and interact with fediverse accounts from Threads, though their accounts will have to be public to do so.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri confirmed in a post today that the Threads team is working on “surfacing trends”, so that new feature is definitely on the way.
Last month, leaker Alessandro Paluzzi posted a screenshot of a feature entitled “Today’s topics” that seems similar to X’s “Trending Topics”, which display topics that users are engaging with the most. He said it could also include reviews by specialists, to avoid trends like “Taylor Swift AI.”
So get ready to sit on those hot takes a little longer. Alessandro Paluzzi, who regularly finds new features by reverse engineering apps, posted a screenshot showing this new “Save draft” option.
That’s according to Alessandro Paluzzi, who regularly spots features in the works for apps like Threads and Instagram.
I’m not much of a bookmarker myself, but if you are, I’m hoping for you that this feature comes out soon.
“Earlier today, an internal prototype was accidentally made available for a small number of people — this is not something we’re testing externally at this time,“ the company told TechCrunch. It’s a shame, since sorting by latest would make it much easier to track breaking news on Threads. Apparently Meta thinks the feature would create a “substantial safety loophole.”
It looks like the app might be adding a list of topics “based on what people are engaging with right now,” according to app developer Alessandro Paluzzi. You can see how the feature might look in the screenshot below, which has a “Today’s topic” heading positioned beneath the search bar.
Meanwhile, a separate post from Paluzzi also suggests Threads might add a feature that shows live updates for “upcoming, ongoing and past sports events.”