The "For you" feed hasn't been particularly popular among Threads users. Meta has now listened to the community's feedback and made some changes. — Photo: Christoph Dernbach/dpa
BERLIN: Meta is now giving Threads users more control over a key setting in letting them choose a default feed to appear when opening the app.
Previously, the default feed was always the "For You" feed, controlled by an AI algorithm, which often displayed content that users had complained was irrelevant.
Meta has announced that users can now set the "Following" feed, or one of their customised feeds, as the default.
As the name suggests, the "Following" feed, organised chronologically, displays posts only from profiles the user follows.
Users can create custom feeds by searching for a topic, opening the three-dot menu, and selecting "Create New Feed."
Additional topics can also be added to custom feeds via the same menu option, "Add to Feed," along with profiles of specific individuals, organisations, companies, or institutions.
Additional new features:
- Users can publicly list up to ten interests or topics on their profiles to highlight what they care about.
- When writing posts, relevant or trending topics that the user has shared content about before will be automatically suggested to make posts easier to compose and find.
- Users can now control who can reply to or quote their posts more precisely. In addition to "Everyone," there is now an option for "Followers Only." Other settings include "Only profiles you follow" and "Only mentioned in the post." However, replies and quotes cannot be entirely disabled.
Threads, alongside competitors like Bluesky and Mastodon, is one of the leading alternatives to Elon Musk's messaging service X (formerly Twitter).
Unlike X, these three platforms are not entirely isolated from one another. With some limitations, users can already connect certain features between services, such as linking Mastodon with Threads and Bluesky. – dpa
