Threads is making additional changes to address long-standing complaints from users. This time, the company is testing improvements to its search and trending topics features in an update that Adam Mosseri called “a long-overdue improvement.”
In terms of search, Threads is testing the ability to search for posts within a specific date range as well as account-specific searches. The changes are similar to some of X’s advanced search features and could make it easier for users to search for specific posts they want to revisit. Threads’ lack of advanced search capabilities has been a long-standing complaint, and until now the most reliable way to search for specific Threads posts has been Google.
Threads is also experimenting with AI-powered “Current Trending Topics” summaries, which will surface some popular topics on the platform to U.S. users. The app will also show an “expanded set” of up to 15 trends (currently Threads shows only five trends at a time). The change sounds a bit like how X handles trends summarized by its AI feature “Grok.” (Grok has a mixed track record when it comes to accuracy, though.) It’s unclear how Meta plans to handle these summaries, but the company already uses Meta AI to aggregate Facebook comments and discussions into groups. The new test is the latest in a slew of thread updates.
Meta also announced tests of custom feeds and improvements to users’ algorithmic feeds last week, making the announcement official just five days later. These changes coincided with a major growth spurt at Threads’ competitor, Bluesky: The decentralized service grew to over 20 million users, with some days seeing growth that rivaled Threads’ daily logins.
