Meta’s latest social media application, Threads, appears to be gearing up to introduce the Trending Topics feature, as indicated by a screenshot inadvertently shared by a Meta employee. Since Threads’ launch in July of this year, users have been expressing interest in having a Trending Topics feature to help them discover the most talked-about subjects, akin to Meta’s rival, Twitter.
Shortly after Threads’ debut, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, stated in an interview with The Verge that Threads was not intended to replace Twitter. Instead, its goal was to create a “public square for communities on Instagram.” Mosseri emphasized the importance of politics and hard news but also pointed out the challenges and risks they bring to platforms, such as increased scrutiny and negativity.
Mosseri’s remarks led many users to believe that Threads might never incorporate the trending topics feature, which has been widely used on Twitter for breaking news, political discussions, and public discourse.
Threads’ Trending Topics feature was initially identified by app developer William Max through a screenshot inadvertently shared by an unnamed Meta employee on Threads. This new feature ranks topics numerically below the search bar and displays the number of posts related to each topic.
It’s worth noting that Threads had recently introduced the keyword search feature in an update just last month. While announcing the update on his Threads profile, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, hinted at the upcoming Trending Topics feature. He mentioned, “Get excited—search is coming to Thread…Rolling out to most English and Spanish speaking countries today. More to come soon.”
