As people leave or deactivate their X accounts, there’s been meaningful growth for alternative platforms like Meta’s Threads and underdog Bluesky. Despite the huge gap in both user numbers and funding between the two, Threads seems to be borrowing from Bluesky’s feature set to prevent it from becoming competitive.
The Verge reported that Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, announced that Threads’ algorithm is getting a “rebalancing” to “prioritize content from people you follow” and “less recommended content from accounts you don’t follow.” Which… is pretty much how Bluesky does things.
Threads also started offering users a custom feeds tool as a way to stay way ahead of Bluesky’s sudden growth. (Custom feeds are a feature Bluesky has offered its users since May of 2023.) The feature lets users pin topics to their home feeds. It’s not known if the new algorithm change will affect the “For Your” custom feed.
Bluesky passed the 20 million user milestone on Tuesday. That number may still pale in comparison toThreads’ 275 million users but Mosseri’s announcement indicates Meta wants to remain the more enticing option for the estimated 550 million users still on X, should they eventually seek greener pastures.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/threads-will-prioritize-accounts-you-follow-instead-of-randos-191529420.html?src=rss
