Meta Set to Roll Out Search And Web Function on Threads in The Coming Weeks

Giant social media company, Meta, is set to introduce the search and web function on the Threads app, in the coming weeks.

This was announced by Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who took to the platform to announce the proposed development on Threads.

Zuckerberg wrote,

“A good week for Threads. The community here is on the trajectory I expect to build a vibrant long-term app. Lots of work ahead but excited about the team’s pace of shipping. Search and web coming in the next few weeks”.

Since the launch of Threads by Meta on the 5th of July 2023, the platform recorded so many sign ups of users within the first few hours of launch, which saw it reach over 100 million registered users within four days of launch.

Meanwhile, the platform’s steam visibly declined, which saw users’ engagements drop over the past weeks. Third-party data suggested that Threads may have lost many more than half of its active users.

Daily active users for Threads on Android dropped from 49 million on July 7 to 23.6 million on July 14, and then to 12.6 million on July 23, web analytics company Similar Web reported.

Despite losing over half of its initial users, Meta CEO Zuckerberg told employees that user retention was better than Meta executives expected. He said he considered the drop-off normal and expected retention to grow as the company adds more features to the app, including a desktop version and search functionality.

During Meta’s earnings call, Zuckerberg disclosed that he is quite optimistic about the future of Threads and that it was built by a small team. He noted that Meta is not going to monetize the app until it is much bigger and more established.

Advertisers and creators have suggested that in order for Threads to become an important service, the real-time messaging app needs to have features that make it easier to search for trending topics and to find previous posts. Also, they added that being able to access Threads on the web is particularly important if Meta wants to truly compete with X, which has long been popular on desktop for people at work.

Notably, Meta did not intend to launch Threads at the time it did. It all came down to a window of opportunity due to the disarray that happened on Twitter, following Musk’s incessant changes on the platform.

As a result, the social media giant decided to launch Threads with a limited number of features, but the company is proactively working on many features to improve the platform and address the pain points of users.

Threads has already introduced a following tab that will make it easier for users to see who is following them. Users will also be able to access a translate button to read the text in other languages and more easily read posts from people they don’t follow.

Also, it has rolled out a feature that enables users to subscribe and receive notifications from accounts a user doesn’t follow, and a “+” button that lets users follow new accounts from the replies on a post, as well as bug fixes and other improvements.

Last month, Meta promised to roll out 10 new features on Threads, although it remains unclear when these and other features will roll out to users.

Here is a round of features expected to roll out soon for Threads users;

• Only people you follow view to prevent displaying posts from people users don’t follow.
• Hashtags similar to Twitter.
• Direct messages.
• Post sorting with the chronological option.
• Posts translations.
• Edit option for posts.
• Recommendation improvements in the feed.
• Robust search within Threads.
• Support for multiple accounts.
• Full web view since the current web experience is extremely limited.
• Ability to delete Threads profile without deleting Instagram.
• ActivityPub (open social networking protocol) support, which allows Threads to be interoperable with other apps that also support the ActivityPub protocol, such as Mastodon and WordPress.

The rollout of new features on Threads is coming ideally on the app to improve functionality and enhance users’ experience.