Threads is working on a new “Communities” feature, which looks a lot like X’s communities, and could be another way to gather users around topics and discussions of interest.
As you can see in these example screens, posted by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, Threads is developing topic-based discussion groups, which will help users find like-minded and like-interested folk to engage with in the app.
That could drive more engagement and interaction in the app, while also helping to inform the Threads algorithm of what you like through topic-based discussion. And if Threads can get more communities engaging in the app, that could also be a big step towards beating out X, and becoming a bigger focus for more engagement.
Because many topics are still driving huge discussion on X:
While X has seen an exodus of users, there are still many dedicated fans and fan communities within the app, which remain embedded to the former bird platform, largely due to habitual behaviors.
Last March, X reported that time spent in communities had grown by 600% year-over-year, with around 650,000 community posts being created daily
And those communities will be hard to shift, but maybe, the addition of Threads’ own communities could help to highlight similar conversation in its app.
There’s clearly a lot of opportunity there, and if Threads can tap into this, and use these communities as a showcase of its own engagement, that could be a big drawcard for interested users.
Threads has actually been developing the option for some time, with the initial elements of its communities feature spotted in testing a year ago. Which could also suggest that this is still a while away from being launched, but the fact that it’s still in development suggests that it is coming, and that Threads is going to make communities a growth focus at some point.
Whether they catch on remains to be seen, but again, they could have a lot of benefits in showcasing topical engagement, and learning more about user interests.
