Tag: Threads

Perhaps it’s not the great alternative to Twitter that many indicated, but Threads is definitely one of the best options out there. A good proof of this is that they continue to bet on this social network from Meta with new updates, both for its app and for the desktop version. In fact, it is the latter that has received a patch that has changed its image, although this new look is very familiar to us.

The social network that serves as an extension of Instagram has started implementing a new user interface globally, and with this, we can customize the view by fixing multiple columns on the screen, allowing us to see them side by side. This may sound familiar to you, and it’s not surprising, as it is quite similar to TweetDeck (currently known as X Pro, with Elon Musk leading the platform).

Threads can now look a lot like TweetDeck

“We are starting to implement the new threads.net on desktop computers worldwide, so you can customize what you see. We have many great ideas to make this the best website for sharing ideas, so stay tuned for more and more. Let us know if you have any suggestions,” recently stated Adam Mosseri, director of Instagram, to announce the arrival of this new functionality.

Beyond its more than reasonable resemblance to TweetDeck, it is worth mentioning that this update to the Threads user interface is very practical for those who want to organize everything they see on the social network and thus see everything that interests them at the same time. This new view can be activated by clicking on the pin icon at the bottom left of the screen and selecting the columns that interest us.

To be exact, we can choose between ‘For you’, ‘Following’, ‘Liked’, ‘Saved’, ‘Search’, ‘Profile’ and ‘Activity’ (within this option you can configure if you want to see mentions, replies or everything, for example). In fact, you can also, using the ‘Search’ column, pin a specific topic or hashtag in one of these columns, and for that you just have to search for the keyword in the search bar and access the desired result. It is worth mentioning that, in addition, each column has three dots at the top right and in them we can find several options such as ‘Save’, ‘Not interested’ and more.

This new functionality has been in development for some time and apparently, all Threads users on their desktop version can already enjoy it. As we mentioned, activating it is very simple and it offers us many options to customize our interface.

Meta’s app to compete with a struggling Twitter, Threads, has announced a new feature that will allow users to hide or mute words.

Previously, this feature allowed filtering “unwanted content” from thread responses. But now, users can filter words, phrases, and even emojis from their feeds.

This way, they will be automatically muted in all threads, both in “following” and “for you”, as well as in search results, message replies, and profiles.

Posted by @mosseri

View on Threads

Step by step they are becoming the Twitter of 2020

The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, announced the update on Threads, writing: “I hope these features give you more control over your experience on Threads and help keep it as a place for positive conversations.”

Mosseri has also referred to the upcoming updates of the application, which is currently in the testing phase: the control of who can quote and respond to posts in Threads and the ability to mute notifications from posts.

These controls are important for any powerful social media application. The application, owned by Meta, has launched its own fact-checkers to combat important issues such as misinformation, and it seems that its latest updates are also an effort to provide Threads users with a more positive experience.

In general, Threads has been playing with the way people view content on the platform, with a recently launched trending topics feature, for example.

The Meta social network created by and to dethrone Twitter as the preferred text social network by citizens (it wasn’t enough to have Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp) is testing a feature ideal for politicians and other people who want to hide their past.

Threads is testing the option to automatically hide your old posts. Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, states that the feature is currently only available to a “small number” of users, but it will allow you to choose between manually archiving individual posts or automatically archiving them after a certain time.

You can see an example of how this function would look in Mosseri’s post on Threads below.

Posted by @mosseri

View on Threads

How will the new option to archive old posts in Threads work

Users with access to the test should be able to manually archive their content by clicking on the three dots in the upper right corner of a post and selecting “Archive now”. This will give users the option to hide certain posts on their profiles, similar to the archive option on Instagram.

Mosseri says that users can make their posts public again at any time. He also adds that this feature will not become the default in Threads.

“We conducted a survey… and the overwhelming response was not to do it by default, so we are going to test it as an option,” explained Mosseri.

Twitter users, now owned and troubled by Elon Musk, have long been asking for the ability to archive posts on the platform, and many have turned to third-party services to hide their content. At least Threads could incorporate an archiving option, which would mean that Threads listens to its users.

Meta, in order to bring forward many innovations, has the historical habit of taking a look at other social networks and applications. With this, taking inspiration from apps like Tinder, in Threads you will now be able to like or dismiss a post by simply swiping your finger in the right direction. A feature that, according to Meta, will serve to create a more agile and intuitive navigation based on gestures.

Giving a like by swiping on Threads

Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram, has been in charge of making this announcement through Threads. From now on, users of Threads will be able to “like” posts or hide them if they are not interested in having that content in their feed, using the swipe left and right gestures, just like Tinder.

However, user reactions may not have been what the company expected, as users have shown irritation at the arrival of features that they are not interested in, while the core of Threads still lacks in terms of features and entertainment. Thus, many users are demanding more work on the arrival of services such as Direct Messages, or the implementation of a chronological feed that allows users to easily find the content of their friends.

A declining performance

Threads has not even reached its first year in operation and has already lost most of the traffic it had in its early days. This service, which functions as a semi-independent offshoot of Instagram, was launched in June 2023, although it did so partially due to non-compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union. The ban in Europe, in fact, extended until the end of 2023, when they already adapted to the laws that protect European Union users.

Furthermore, in order to try to reverse the low traffic, Threads is trying various solutions, such as small usability improvements like this content sliding format. Another one, in fact, was carried out in recent weeks, when Facebook added a button for users who create content on this platform to simultaneously upload it to Threads, thus duplicating said content on different platforms, and increasing Threads’ traffic without the user having to use the application itself.

Threads, the Instagram app that was born to compete with X (Twitter) in the microblogging social networking segment, has made an expected addition for many users who wanted to be able to save content with more privacy. Now, just like in its rival app, or in Instagram, Threads users can freely save posts they like.

This is not something new, as we mentioned before, there are already several social networks that have this type of feature. However, Threads, which is not even a year old yet, had not taken that step yet. Now, therefore, those who often use this feature in other services will also be able to do the same in Threads.

Saving posts in Threads

The person in charge of making this announcement has been Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram, and he has done it through Threads. With this, a new functionality that will be liked by many regular Threads users is now official, as they will be able to save content privately.

To save any type of content, you just have to click on the top dots of that publication to display the action menu. There you will find the “save” button, which will store the content that each user saves privately in their personal profile.

Settled, but on the decline

The global launch of Threads is getting further away, although the arrival of this service in Spain is much more recent, as, due to European restrictions not met by the application, this service could not be used in the territory of the European Union in June 2023, a veto that Threads could not lift until December, when all its privacy and data protection regulations were aligned with European requirements. Despite this, Threads is not thriving in terms of traffic.

In fact, one way that Meta is trying to increase traffic within Threads has been adding a button on Facebook that duplicates any post on the user’s Threads profile. With this move, Meta manages to duplicate content on two different platforms, allowing both Threads and Facebook users to see and react to the content if they are interested.

Threads, Mark Zuckerberg’s social network focused on microblogging, is testing eye-catching colors and effects for the texts published on the platform during the New Year festivities. In this way, the service that has been operating for half a year, and that has recently arrived in Spain, will have a touch of color for one of the most anticipated dates of the year.

The platform that works in parallel to Instagram offers users a service where the protagonist is written text. Therefore, taking this factor into account, colored and filtered letters are the new test that Threads is carrying out in its service.

Letters with Threads Filter

As shown by Threads user Alex193a, you can see how he has written a post with a striking gradient between yellow, red, and pink tones, wishing a happy 2024. With this, in this way, along with the message he shares afterwards, affirming Meta’s testing of introducing this feature soon, users’ posts wishing the new year would have this visually striking letter filter.

Meta strives to keep Threads strong, the microblogging service with which they entered a new segment of social networks. It is still a young app and its team will have many ideas in mind yet to be known, but we will have to stay expectant about the upcoming news and features that the Zuckerberg team plans to implement in Threads.

Now, it’s finally in Europe

Threads has taken more than half a year to arrive in Europe, but it had a weighty reason: the application was not prepared to operate legally in the European territory, so, despite being available since June in many territories around the world, European users had to wait until mid-December 2023. However, after the wait, Threads is now fully operational, including Spain.

In regards to the application itself, Threads originated as a spin-off of Instagram prepared to compete with Twitter, or in other words, the current X. Elon Musk’s platform is going through many complicated moments, and that has allowed the competition to come into play more easily. However, despite its strong start, Threads has a much more discreet number of active users at present.

There’s hardly any reader who doesn’t know about Threads, the latest social media platform from Meta, the company behind well-known apps like Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. Threads, an app based on Instagram, was initially positioned as one of the best alternatives to Twitter. While it may not be talked about in these terms as much now, it was quite successful when it was first launched in the markets it entered (notably, it has not been released in Europe yet).

Now, in order to continue evolving and offering the best possible options to its users, Threads has added some interesting updates to its web version. In fact, the news was shared by the CEO of Instagram through a post on Threads, where he also took the opportunity to highlight the most significant changes that this social network is receiving.

Threads continues to receive updates to improve your web experience

In his post on Threads, Adam Mosseri announced that users of Meta’s web version of the platform can now adjust their alternative text for videos and photos when posting from the web. This was the first update shared by Instagram’s CEO, and he also mentioned that users can now copy and paste, as well as drag and drop, multimedia files in their posts.

The other updates include the ability to add multiple posts to a thread before publishing and the option to view quotes and reposts by clicking on the “Like” button on the respective post. As you can see, these are not groundbreaking additions to the Meta social network, but they are indeed useful enhancements for daily use through its web version.

In any case, it’s a fact that Meta wants to try to do things as well as possible with Threads, despite some aspects that still need to be corrected, and that’s why the company wants to continue improving the user experience when interacting with all possible versions of the mentioned social network.

Threads is already working on its own API, which is essentially an Application Programming Interface, as stated by Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, in response to a conversation that took place on Meta’s own social network. The mentioned conversation raised the possibility of having an app equivalent to TweetDeck for Threads, and it justified the absence of a similar application due to the lack of a developer API.

With the creation of an API for Threads, it can open the door to new forms of interaction with Meta’s platform, allowing users to view its content through third-party applications or on the web. For those not familiar, an API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of definitions and protocols that enable communication between software from different applications, sharing both information and functionalities.

Threads will have its own API

This API for Meta’s latest platforms could also be used to create complementary applications to Threads. These applications could allow interaction with the social network and its content. Additionally, they could add features currently not available in the original app. It could be very useful, for example, to share content that has been published on a website directly on Threads.

On the other hand, Instagram‘s CEO, despite confirming this news through Threads, also wanted to express his concern that the introduction of an API for the social network might result in “much more content for publishers and not much more content for creators.” In other words, he is worried that media outlets, for instance, could publish much more content on the app, overshadowing the content created by users on the platform itself.

We’ll see how all of this turns out. For now, we can remember that Twitter (now X), among other networks, had a public API from which platforms like TweetDeck were created. However, as you may know, access to its API started getting restricted back in April. As a result, TweetDeck is now only available to X Premium subscribers.