An inadvertent screenshot shared by a Meta employee reveals an upcoming Threads feature. Mark Zuckerberg’s company is possibly preparing to roll out a Trending Topics feature, akin to the one formerly known as Twitter
Meta’s text-based social media platform, Threads, was unveiled in July of this year with a goal to directly compete with Twitter, which has now been rebranded as X. Within just five days of its launch, the app garnered millions of downloads and provided a streamlined process for existing Instagram users to create Threads accounts. Speculation arose that Threads might eventually replace X, especially given the discontent among users with the micro-blogging platform for various reasons at the time. Nevertheless, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri clarified that Threads wasn’t intended to replace Twitter but offered an alternative platform for those seeking a ‘less contentious’ online experience.
Despite these assertions, observable similarities persisted between the two platforms, and recent reports indicate that Threads is actively developing a new feature akin to X.
Threads’ Upcoming Feature Similar to X As reported by Livemint, a Meta employee inadvertently shared a screenshot unveiling this upcoming feature – Trending Topics. This feature will provide users with insights into the popular discussions and trending subjects on Threads. The screenshot was initially spotted by app developer William Max and surfaced when a Meta employee accidentally posted it on Threads. The upcoming feature is expected to rank topics numerically beneath a search bar, displaying the number of posts related to each topic. Currently, on X, users receive notifications about trending topics that are capturing people’s attention.
Mark Zuckerberg had previously alluded to this feature in a post, stating, “Get excited — search is coming to Threads. Rolling out to most English and Spanish-speaking countries today. More to come soon.”
Parallels Between Threads and Twitter Threads boasts several features that bear resemblance to Twitter. The content feed within the Meta-owned app is categorized into ‘For You’ and ‘Following’ sections. The ‘For You’ section includes a mixture of posts from profiles users follow, along with recommended accounts. The ‘Following’ section exclusively showcases posts from people users follow in chronological order.
Additionally, Threads introduced the ‘Translations’ feature, which automatically translates posts in the user’s feed into the language they are written in, aligning with the language settings of the viewer. Therefore, if a user encounters a post in a different language with an available translation, they can simply tap the translation button at the bottom right of the post or reply to view it in their preferred language.
Both Threads and Twitter allow users to engage with posts through various actions, such as reporting, liking, and commenting. Notably, both platforms started as text-based social media apps, though Twitter (now known as X) has also expanded its capabilities to include long video uploads
