Breaking News: Thread Launches Trending Topics Feature Nationwide for US Users

Threads, the Twitter-like app from Instagram, is now rolling out its “trending now” feature to all users in the U.S. This highly anticipated announcement comes just a month after the app began testing the feature with a select number of users within the country. The trending topics feature is now readily available on the search page and can also be found in the app’s For You Feed.

In a Threads post, Instagram head Adam Mosseri shared, “We’re excited to officially launch ‘trending topics’ on Threads. This new feature allows users to easily keep up with the latest discussions happening on the app.”

With the implementation of trending topics, Threads is now more in-line with X, as it allows users to easily find and engage in current conversations within the social network. Prior to this update, Threads lacked a sense of real-time community. The addition of trending topics can help bridge this gap by providing users with an overview of popular discussions beyond what they see in their own feeds.

In a previous statement to TechCrunch, Meta explained that the topics chosen for trending are determined by the company’s advanced AI systems. These selections are based on the amount of engagement a topic receives on Threads. The algorithm takes into consideration various factors, including the number of people talking about a certain topic and the level of engagement on related posts.

However, while the trending topics feature is an exciting addition, it does have some limitations. Unlike X, which displays multiple trending topics at once, Threads currently only shows five at a time. This could be a precautionary measure taken by the app to prevent potential issues regarding user safety and spam.

In the past, Meta has stated that Threads would not actively recommend political content. However, it is worth noting that many topics that often trend on the platform revolve around politics. During President Biden’s State of the Union address earlier this month, political chatter dominated the trending topics on Threads. While Meta has been distancing itself from the political realm on its platforms for several years, it seems that politics will not be excluded from Threads’ trend feature. Of course, this could change in the future.