Meta is adding several new features to its X/Twitter rival Threads. CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently took to the platform to announce three new features rolling out this week. A couple of hours later, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced a few more.
For starters, Threads is gaining the ability to share posts via Instagram DMs (direct messages). The share menu that pops up on tapping the share button (paper airplane-like icon) below a post will include a “Send on Instagram” option. You can select that option to send a Threads post to someone on Instagram.
The app is also enhancing accessibility by adding support for custom alt-text. When attaching a photo or video to your post, you have the option to manually add alternative text to describe each media file. Mentioning other users on your Thread is also getting easier thanks to a new dedicated “mention” button, the Meta CEO announced. This is in addition to the existing capability of mentioning accounts by typing @ followed by the username in the compose field.
Mosseri repeated some of Zuckerberg’s announcements and added that Threads will soon allow you to see all posts you have liked. You will find a “Your likes” menu in your profile settings. You can also now sort the accounts you follow. Go to your profile, tap on Followers, switch to the Following tab, and hit the Sort button at the top right corner. Interestingly, the Sort button is already present on all three tabs (Followers and Pending as well) for some of us here at Android Headlines. However, it is greyed out and is non-functional at the moment.
Meta has added support for rel=me links to Threads
The Instagram head also revealed that Threads has already added support for rel=me links. This will help you verify your identity on other platforms by linking your Threads profile. Mosseri named Mastodon as one of the supported platforms. Mastodon originally emerged as a viable alternative to Twitter (now X) but the craze has died down a lot in recent months. The arrival of Threads has further hit traffic to the platform.
Threads itself has seen a massive drop in daily active users after the initial hype, which saw it rake in 100 million users within a few days of launch. However, Meta is confident that people will gradually return to the platform. It’s rapidly adding new features to improve its usability. Zuckerberg recently announced that a web client and improved search are in the pipeline. Stay tuned for those updates.
2023-08-10 15:08:17