Threads is the fastest-growing social media platform of all time, reaching 100 million users in just five days. The platform was launched by Meta to compete with Twitter after Twitter was purchased by Elon Musk and had a precipitous decline in users and quality. While it ties directly into Instagram and is built on the same technology, Threads is intended to be a town square for the internet. But can a town square thrive when it’s filled suddenly with millions of voices and moderated in the same way that made Instagram a place that was friendly for brands and few others?
Starting next week, Meta’s Family Center will have options for parents to adjust their teens’ Threads account privacy and content settings, similar to parental controls on Meta’s other apps.
Parents will also be able to see and limit how much time their teens spend on Threads and manage who can tag their teens.
Any “champions” in a Threads community can now make and host live chats, and live chats can have up to three co-hosts. If you want to share a post in a live chat to your main Threads feed, you’ll be able to do that, too.
Threads launched live chats in April.
The logo isn’t too different from the previous version, but I think it looks nice. Threads’ head of design has a… thread… with a little more about the changes.
When you’re in a Threads Community’s live chat, you can talk with real time with other users about what’s going on. For the NBA playoffs, the NBA Threads Community will be hosting some live chats to follow games. Live chats will come to other Community feeds in the coming months, Meta says.
A new “Messages” tab appears in this preview of its redesigned web layout that head of Threads, Connor Hayes, posted on Thursday, as Engadget reports.
Threads got DMs in 2025, but only on Android and iOS. Hayes noted that users will start to see Messages on the web version “over the coming weeks.”
As part of a test on Threads, when you type “DM me” or “message me” in a post or reply, those words will turn into a link that people can tap to start a DM conversation.
Meta wants Threads to be the app you open first thing in the morning, and it sounds like some of you feel about the same way I do about that idea.
Vogon5:
Absolutely not lmao
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On Threads, that is; Meta is testing “flair” labels for users in Communities that will show up on your posts to indicate what you like to talk about. Users who are “Community champions” can decide the flair options, Meta says.
Threads will test a feature where you can include “dear algo” in a post to add more or less content on whatever you’re writing to the algorithm about to your feed, according to Threads boss Connor Hayes.
Meta is tweaking how a string of posts looks on the platform, including adding labels that indicate if the post is one in a longer thread. This makes it much easier to see where the discussion continues, and is also a nice signal that someone’s thoughts go on longer than the first post. Now we need this on Bluesky...
The changes include tools to compare post performance over time and see where people encounter your posts. You can read more about the changes in a blog post or on Threads.
Meta appears to be testing the option to sign up for its X rival with a Facebook account, as it slowly separates Threads from its Instagram origins, with a support page but no official announcement yet. It opens up a new audience for the app, which is closing in on X’s daily active user numbers.
[help.instagram.com]
According to Similarweb data reported by TechCrunch, the Threads mobile app reached 115.1 million daily active users in June, compared to the 132 million daily actives for X and 4.1 million for Bluesky. But while X’s growth declined by 15.2 percent year-over-year on mobile, Threads has increased by 127.8 percent during the same period.
X only has to take Meta seriously on iOS and Android, however, given it’s still thrashing both Threads and Bluesky for web visits.
The company doesn’t have any posts on the platform yet, but you can follow its profile now.
[threads.com]
Meta is testing a new feature that lets you add specific topics to a dedicated “Interests” section on your Threads profile, as spotted by @faslu_35. The company confirmed the test to TechCrunch.
My colleague Chris Welch spotted that the tab had been pinned to the top of his home screen in the iOS app, beckoning him to stick with Threads for the latest news on the awards show, which is starting in less than an hour at 7PM ET.
I don’t have it, but it’s not unusual for Threads to test the waters before rolling features out to everyone.
