Threads Adds Topic Tags on Profiles, Reply Controls and Video Updates

Meta has announced a raft of updates for its Twitter clone Threads, including an option to add topics that you’re interested in to your profile, updated topic tagging for posts, reply controls, a video UI update, and more.

First off, after experimenting with the option over the last month or so, Threads has now officially announced that users can add topic of interest to their profiles.

As you can see in these example screens, now, you can highlight topics that you’re interested in, and are likely to be posting about, with custom tags that will be displayed below your bio on your Threads profile.

That could be another way to encourage users to tap that follow button on profiles in the app, which has been a key problem for Threads, and a potential impediment to its expanded growth. Because with recommendation algorithms becoming more and more attuned to each person’s interests, based solely on their in-app activity, social media users don’t really need to follow profiles anymore, as they can just rely on the algorithm to show them what they want to see whenever they log in.

The problem with that is that creators feel less aligned to the app if they can’t build an audience, and see that follower count go up.

As such, the Threads team has been working to rectify this, by putting more emphasis on posts from accounts that you follow, and adding more follow options in-stream. And now, you’ll also be able to list your interests, which the Threads team will be hoping helps to pump up creator follower counts.

And when a profile visitor taps on those topic tags, it will show conversations about that topic (second image above).

Threads is also looking to highlight topics of interest within the post composer, via new prompts to add a suggested trending topic, or one related to previous posts you’ve shared.

The hope is that this will spark more relevant conversations, and encourage more people to add their own takes on key discussions, sparking more engagement.

Also, Threads says that:

“According to our internal data, posts with tagged topics generally receive more views than those without one, making them an effective way to help you reach more people.”

Topic tags enable better sorting, and improved discovery, and as such, Meta’s now trying to build in more ways to spark trending, real-time engagement.

Meta’s also added some new post control options, so you can choose who and how people can interact with your updates:

“Starting today, you can choose to allow replies and quote-posts only from your followers. This builds on our Quote Controls feature, which we introduced in November 2024 as a way to manage who can engage with you and your posts.”

So, much like X, now you will have more control over how people can engage with your updates, which can be an important safety element for many users.

And with Meta also phasing political content back into Threads, that could become even more important. 

“In line with our announcement earlier this year, we’ve updated our approach to political posts and have started phasing civic content back into Threads in a more personalized way.”

The Threads team had built political content controls into the original framework of the app, and it’ll be interesting to see how it now looks to reverse course, and bring politics to the fore.

The best outcome here is that it will make Threads feel more alive, especially around trending political news event, because Threads has, in the past, felt like it was out of touch when, say, the U.S. election is happening, and the top story on Threads is a dog on a surfboard.

If Threads really wants to usurp X, it needs to facilitate real-time discussion, and this could be a major step towards doing just that.   

Threads is also providing more customization in your feed display:

“You can also now personalize the order of your feeds. For instance, if you’d like to see a custom feed you’ve created when you first open the app, you can make that your default.”

That’s a significant addition, as it’ll enable you to revert to a key topic of focus as your main Threads feed. That could help to imbue a more community-aligned feel in the app, which could again spark more topical conversation.

Finally, Threads is also getting an updated video player, with new pause, play and skip buttons that make videos easier to watch.

As you can see in this example, Threads has also added a pinned progress bar to the player, which will make it easier to skim back and forward within clips. 

These are some good updates, which should help to facilitate more real-time, topical engagement in the app, and ideally make Threads feel alive, and a more real-time feed of the latest updates.

Which has long been the biggest knock on the app, that it’s like X, but it’s nowhere near as good for keeping up with real-time news. That could be what’s kept many established communities from making the switch, especially sports-aligned groups, who are the biggest holdout on X.

Maybe, with enhanced capacity for topical engagement, those groups will now see more potential in Meta’s challenger app, which could help it maintain its steady growth momentum.