The social media app Threads, which is built on Instagram, is finally getting a long-awaited new feature that will make it much more appealing to both current and potential users.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the news on his Instagram broadcast channel: “Threads started rolling out an option for a chronological feed of only people you’re following, and it also added translations.” This means that you’ll finally see posts from the people you follow instead of posts from random confirmed users in your feed.
To see the new tab, you’ll need to have Threads on your phone and update to the most recent version, which is version 293 on Google Play or the App Store. When you check the app after you’ve updated, you’ll see “For You” and “Following.” If you click on the second one, you’ll only see posts from users you follow.
Read also: All you need to know about Meta’s Threads app
Threads need to fix a few problems first
One of the best and most crucial decisions Threads could have made was to add a following feed, as users are almost certain to use and stay on the app longer if they can actually keep track of the people they follow and care about. Not to mention that the more it works like Twitter, the better chance it has of really competing with it and finally taking its place.
It doesn’t help that Twitter is always putting out confusing and bad changes that make it almost impossible to use. The latest is a strange and silly renaming of Twitter to just ‘X.’
Even though this is one of the most-requested features that has finally been added, Threads still needs a lot of tools to be fully fleshed out. First, it needs Direct messages since there’s no way to talk to other people in private. Users will go to other sites for the function and spend less time on Threads.
Second, Threads needs a “Trending” tab so that users can find out about the latest news, world events, social problems, and popular discussions.
Although this feature can cause a lot of arguments on Twitter, it also greatly increases engagement and site retention, which are two things that Twitter needs right now if it wants to last in the long run.
It also needs a better search function. Right now, you can only look up other accounts, not general topics. This makes it harder to put stories together.
And finally, Threads really needs a desktop mode to get people to use it more. Instagram’s mobile-only approach worked well, but it doesn’t seem to be working nearly as well for Threads.