After multiple reports from Threads users on the iOS app, a new option to sort search results on the social network has been spotted. The option, labeled as “Latest”, has caught the attention of many users.
Excitement soon turned to disappointment when the company behind Threads, Meta, released a statement to TechCrunch. According to Meta, the feature was accidentally made available as an internal prototype and was not meant to be tested externally at this time.
“Earlier today, an internal prototype was accidentally made available for a small number of people – this is not something we’re testing externally at this time,” Meta said.
This new development is quite interesting, especially after previous comments from Instagram Head, Adam Mosseri. In November, he explained that Threads did not have an option to search for the latest results due to concerns about creating a “safety loophole”.
“To clarify, having a comprehensive list of every post with a specific word in chronological order inevitably means spammers and other bad actors pummel the view with content by simply adding the relevant words or tags,” Mosseri said. “And before you ask why we don’t take down that bad content, understand there’s a lot more content that people don’t want to see than we can or should take down.”
Despite these concerns, he did mention that it was possible to show results in chronological order. However, it would require the social network to efficiently filter out low-quality content.
The testing of the search feature on Threads started in August 2023, with Australia and New Zealand being the first countries to be included. It wasn’t until September of last year that Meta expanded the feature to all English and Spanish-speaking countries where the social network was available.
In December, this feature was rolled out to all languages including the European Union, where Threads also made its debut later in the month. This expansion of the search feature showed Meta’s determination to continuously improve Threads and provide a better user experience for its growing community.
