Threads, owned by Meta, unveiled its new community features to compete with X (previously Twitter) by providing specialised locations for users to connect around shared interests.
Breaking its early reputation as a Twitter clone, Threads creates casual, topic-focused venues where people can communicate freely with over 400 million monthly users to deepen interaction.
Communities enhance user profiles and discovery
Threads communities display badges on users’ profiles, signalling membership to others and boosting user identity on the platform. Each community also offers a unique custom emoji for “Likes” relevant to the topic, such as a basketball for NBA Threads or a stack of books for Book Threads, making interactions more playful and personalised.
Users can explore over 100 web and mobile communities on AI, K-pop, professional basketball, and novels. Designing dynamic, targeted areas for casual talks goes beyond topic tags or curated feeds. Meta says communities will affect what users see in their main feed, promoting posts that match user interests.
Threads’ approach differs from X communities
While X’s communities function more like Reddit-style user-created and moderated forums where only members can post and engage, Threads keeps community creation under Meta’s control, with users unable to create their own spaces.
However, non-members can still join discussions on Threads, expanding the conversation beyond strict community boundaries.
Meta has started awarding blue badges to active contributors within communities to highlight leading voices.
Threads seeks to create a more unified, safer environment than X’s wild, infectious culture by creating a controlled yet open system. Communities help organise content and make social media more tranquil, matching Threads’ softer, gentler mood than X’s loudness.
This community’s rollout positions Threads as a genuine alternative to X by emphasising meaningful relationships over virality and targeting particular debates inside a bigger social network.