As the social media landscape continues to evolve, the competition between platforms is heating up. In a move to challenge the growing popularity of Bluesky, Meta's Instagram Threads has announced the global rollout of a new feature - custom feeds.
Bluesky, the X (formerly Twitter) competitor, has seen a surge in adoption since the recent U.S. elections, with its user base soaring from around 7 million to over 20 million. This growth has been fueled by users seeking an alternative to the increasingly right-leaning X platform, as well as changes to features like the block function and policies around training AI models on user data.
In response, Threads is rolling out its custom feeds feature, which allows users to easily build feeds around specific topics or user profiles. This personalization tool is aimed at helping Threads users tap into the communities and conversations that are most important to them, potentially helping the platform to challenge Bluesky's own set of personalization tools.
The global launch of custom feeds on Threads comes just days after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the feature was entering testing, signaling the platform's urgency to capitalize on the momentum Bluesky has recently gained.
While Threads currently boasts a larger user base than Bluesky, with over 275 million monthly active users, the platform has faced some criticism from users who have been disappointed by its decision to deprioritize politics. The custom feeds feature is seen as a way to address this concern, providing users with more control over their content experience.
To use the new custom feeds feature, Threads users can search for and tap into a topic to see the latest posts, then tap the three-dot icon next to the search term and choose the "create new feed" option. Users can also add specific profiles to their custom feeds by visiting the user's profile and tapping the three-dot icon above their photo.
The ability to pin these custom feeds to the top of the Threads home screen on the web, similar to Twitter's TweetDeck or X Pro, further enhances the user experience and makes it easier to access the content that matters most.
As the battle for social media dominance continues, the rollout of custom feeds on Threads represents a strategic move by Meta to challenge Bluesky's growing influence and retain its position as a leading platform. It will be interesting to see how users respond to this new feature and how it impacts the ongoing competition between these social media giants.
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