Meta Threads gets a timeline for the people you follow
In this photo illustration, META’s Threads logo is displayed on a smartphone with the Twitter logo in the background. Threads is a new social network from Meta Platforms that was launched on July 5, 2023.
Omar Marquez | Nurphoto | Getty Images
MetaNew text-based social media app Threads launched a much-anticipated new feature on Tuesday: the Follows tab.
The new tab allows users to see chronological posts from people they follow, instead of the less cohesive, algorithmically curated content that appears in the For You feed. Many users have been asking Meta executives like CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri for this feature since Threads launched earlier this month.
“Ask and ye shall receive,” Zuckerberg wrote in a post on Tuesday.
Meta’s Threads has added a chronological Following channel
Meta said Tuesday that the Threads update will also allow users to sort their Activity feed by follows, quotes and reposts, allow people to see posts they’ve liked in their settings, and translate certain posts that appear in a different language.
Many users were quick to point out that the “For You” and “Following” tabs are similar to the existing layout on Twitter, which was renamed “X” as part of the latest changes to the platform after Elon Musk bought it late last year.
But the comparisons do not stop there. Threads has a remarkably similar look and feel to Twitter, as many of Twitter’s core icons and features, such as the character limit, have been replicated across the platform. Meta executives like Mosseri have touted Threads as a more positive “public square” for communities “that have never used Twitter.”
Threads were first launched on July 5th, while a series of outages and controversial bidding limit rules affected Twitter users. The platform quickly climbed to 100 million users, although engagement with the app has since declined.
Meta said on Tuesday that it is working to deliver new features to Threads as soon as possible.
